


Welcome to The Real World

by AtroxForensis



Series: False Au [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, False Au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-06
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-03-16 15:47:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 32,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3493937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtroxForensis/pseuds/AtroxForensis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaune wakes up to a world that is not his own, but lives it like he had been in it for his entire life. He soon realizes that something in this world is wrong and that the cracks of the moon and the people around may lead him to find something about this world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Waking Visions

It's so dark…

Am I asleep?

Then I'm dreaming…

Why is everything black?

*roar*

What was that?

*RRROOOOARRR*

Wait.

What is this?

Fur?

*roar*

What it that?

A skull? A bear?

Jaune woke up violently, breathing herd as he sat up from his bed. He held his forehead and tried to remember what he was dreaming. All he remembers was blackness. Same thing happens to everyone, remembering a dream is difficult. For Jaune, aside the blackness was something else.

"A skull."

It was difficult for him to remember what transpired in his dream. He then realized the light shining from his window and the loud ringing of his old alarm clock

"Holy- I'll be late!"

He jumped up from his bed and scrambled around his floor. After half an hour of getting ready, he made his way to grab some bread and meat from his fridge for breakfast. It didn't look like he had enough time to sit and eat. He grabbed what he could and made a simple sandwich and took a milk carton. He was now fully dressed for school. His usual short sleeve hoodie with his jeans. He grabbed his back and ID. For a moment he started at his ID. Black hair and brown eyes.

-Jaune Luna-

He stared at his name. The name felt foreign to him, but it has his. Yet something about the name felt off to him. He couldn't point his finger to it, but looking at his ID brought an uncanny feeling for him. Looking back at his clock, he brushed the thought and made his way to the door.

Beacon Academy.

A high school that was not so far from his place. So the commute was short, but making past convergence of vehicles and other people at a certain time would certainly delay the travel. Being so close to the school didn't matter if traffic got around before anyone did. Jaune ate his sandwich along the way. This simple sandwich wasn't totally going to fill him up, but it was better then starving all the way to lunch period. As he munched, he looked around, noticed some students walking along with him. He recognized some of them talking to each other.

A relatively short girl with orange hair, wearing a red hoodie was talking to a taller girl with blonde, straight hair. It seemed like she was spurring up quite a conversation from the way she flung her hands to describe something. Jaune couldn't make out anything she was saying from across the street.

-Yang Dunkleman and Ruby Jones.-

Alongside their different looks, they were step-sisters who were entering the same highschool as freshman. Ruby was a younger than Yang, but she did so well in her grade that she managed to skip a few grades, enough to walk side by side with her sister. Both ecstatic to know that they would share the life a a highschooler together. Yang had always been friendly with everyone. She had as much energy as her sister, but rarely acts like was known to everyone how much took care of her hair. Most of the girls were jealous of her long, straight blonde hair. So it isn't uncommon that Yang would gain enemies because of something as small as her hair.

Jaune had met these two in the beginning of the school year. Being friends with them made Jaune's thought of school be much better. The two continued to walk as they talked to each other.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!"

He watched Ruby bump into a girl that was equally her height. Ruby profusely apologized to the girl, bowing to the girl and putting her hand on her own head. This was not the first time this has happened. The girl she bumped into was none other than Weiss Eberle. Hair, paler than Yang's. Uptight and quite bossy at times.

This girl was known for her relations with the head of a powerful company. She was also known for her intellect.

Jaune may not be the only one to notice, but there are some who knew about Weiss and her relationship among other students. She didn't have a lot of friends. Most definitely because of her personality, people seeing her only as a valuable ally to have because of her family's name. She had a group of girls following her around, but none were really her friends. It was dead obvious that Weiss doesn't trust any of them to be called a friend. Yet she still lets them walk along side her.

Not many people pay attention to things, but observing Weiss from time to time, she always has this sad look in her face. Its as if the expressions she put up with everyone is just a façade to fit in, but that personality is making it it impossible to happen. Jaune guessed that it was normal for girls to put up a face, just to fit in.

Her not having any friends is from the treatment she gives to people whenever she's opposed. Ruby was getting that treatment right now. She kept shouting at the poor girl while a taller individual tried to calm her down. This girl sported long red hair and looked really feminine.

This girl was Pyrrha Brown. Noticeable crimson hair. She was the smartest girl in class. She was also pretty athletic. She seemed like a celebrity, beauty and athletic. She was a model student and hailed from a prestigious middle school. She had been the smartest person in her middle school throughout her time tin Sanctum. She's a nice girl, but her taste in men wasn't really good. Since the boy she's currently dating was a full on jerk named Cardin Ellis. Though that was only a rumor. A rumor that everyone seemed to believe. Pyrrha didn't look like she cared about it though.

Pyrrha managed to calm the ice queen and walked away along with her clique. She motioned her hand to apologized to Yang and Ruby. Ruby looked like she was in tears.

Not so long ago, she was happy. Only to be put down by the Heiress. Yang held her sister close as they continued walking.

Yang, even though she was the big sister, she wasn't able to defend Ruby like an older sister would. Jaune had seen occasions about Yang not being so strong. Back in middle school, girls had always picked on her and she just took it. Jaune would sometimes hear crying by the bathrooms whenever he had to go. Not long after graduation, her social status changed after her "puberty." But when things change, others stay the same.

Jaune had finished eating his sandwich and milk. He was about to throw the carton to a nearby trashcan until he bumped into someone. Jaune flinched, surprised by the emergence of this person from his blind spot.

-Blake Zech-

Short black hair and a bow. She was reading a book before they collided. Jaune apologized awkwardly to her. She averted his gaze, pretending not to notice him. Blake and Jaune had some history together. He had gone out with Blake in middle school. They were both happy then. Blake's smile was quite a blessing to see. It was one of her distinguishing features aside her black bow. They broke up at some point and he has never seen her smile since.

Not the same smile she always gave him.

"Move it, dumbass."

He was violently shoved by a taller man. This man looked like he was a junior.

Blake dating older guys. That seemed like something she'd do.

Adam Hunter was the name this guy had. He fit the bad boy profile. Jaune hadn't had a clue what Blake sees in him.

"Sorry."

Jaune moved back, bowing his head. Jaune thought about Blake and their relationship from back then. They were together then and happy.

What happened between them that made them what they are now?

'When did we break up?'

His head was filled with so much thought. He tried to remember. He thought more of what was the more important question.

'WHY did we break up?'

But for the life of him, he could not remember. He shouted in his head, how can he forget something so important?

"Hey! Move it!"

He felt another shove. Jaune got Ruby beat today. The physical attack broke Jaune's train of thought.

A girl in front of him, who like about Ruby's height, glared at him. This feisty, brown haired girl was Nora Ireland. It was rare to see her going to school. She was a delinquent after all. She's pretty feared by others. She's quite a fighter and held quite a reputation outside school. What surprises Jaune even more was how in Remnant's name was Nora even in Beacon and how is she still there.

She doesn't attend classes often from days, yet she was still enrolled. He had never seen her grades and it didn't look like she was doing bad at class. He thought that it probably had to do with her gang threatening other students into giving her answers and school materials. Maybe it was something like that.

"Sorry!"

Jaune quickly moved back, letting the girl walked by him. He didn't want to get into a rumble with this girl. He didn't want to get in her bad side and get jumped by her gang. Jaune remembered during his first they when the holder kids started making a fuss with her and afterwards, the school was full of gossip about the same kids were in the hospital from aggressive assault. As Nora walked away, she looked back and gave Jaune a glare. Jaune felt the heat from her piercing eyes. She turned back stopping short from bumping into another person.

Nora's reaction was different this time. She moved back and whispered an apology. Why does that person get treated differently?

'Oh.'

Jaune noticed that the person was none other than Oum Ren. He was an enigmatic transfer student. Academically, he was quite a genius, but he made it seemed like he was better than everyone else, sometimes making smug remarks. Ren continued to walk without even noticing Nora.

His demeanor was what kept people from approaching him. Usually when teams are assigned, he was just placed by the teachers.

Does Nora like this guy? This wasn't the only time it has happened. There were occasions where Jaune noticed Nora stalking Ren when going home. It was a bit creepy, but that was the case.

"That's the gang."

Jaune had stopped and looked at the sky. It's been a few weeks since he entered Beacon Academy. It was a surprise that he managed to get into it, just barely. Jaune had hoped for a great high school life, but from how things have been going on, it seemed unlikely. It didn't take Ruby long till she was back to her old self, continuing her conversation with her older sister. It seemed like the incident with Weiss never even happened.

He took a deep breath and continued. People are just running into each other these days. Just bumping and making a scene. Jaune may not have been smart, but he is usually pretty observant of the people around him.

He was an approachable guy, and easy to get along with. Not pretty good with the ladies. Thankfully he did make a couple of friends in the first day of school. Jaune never regretted helping Ruby from Weiss's wrath in the first day. Yang had gone to get something for her to drink and the Ruby had been nervous about entering high school and the first thing in the day was bumping into the ice queen. Yang had seen what transpired and dearly thanked him.

Jaune had made quite a friendly status with these two.

Never once Jaune hit on them. He didn't want to destroy what he just got from them. Being friends with these siblings were enough.

Jaune walked quickly to them and greeted them. Jaune didn't want to tell them that he saw Weiss shouting at Ruby. Weiss wasn't in good relations with Jaune. Especially in the first day when he tried to soothe and asked her out to date, which ended terribly with his face marked with her hand. Jaune didn't realize Weiss remembered him when he saved Ruby from her.

He walked happily alongside them. For all the things that happened and didn't happen for his first year in Beacon, it was enough to know that he wasn't alone.

He stopped suddenly as he looked up at the sky.

Something felt off about the moon. It's natural for the moon to be out in the day from time to time, but…

"Is the moon…braking apart?"

"What did you say Jaune?" Ruby noticed Jaune's pause. Yang had turned around to see what was keeping Jaune.

"It's nothing. Let's get going, we don't want traffic to catch up."

"Okay! So yeah, this senior looked really pretty! Her black hair was like on one side and she had this sexiness going for her."

'Yeah, everything will be fine.'

Though as Jaune walked alongside Ruby and Yang, he can't shake the feeling of what he felt this morning. Whatever it was, he was sure that it was something ominous.

_To be continued..._


	2. Waking Revelations

Besides the 'exhilarating events' in the morning, classes had never been so dull. Jaune sat at the very far back of the classroom right by the windows. Hidden from the gazes of other students. The instructor up front continued to revel at his life accomplishments in hoping to inspire the students who, like Jaune, aren't paying too close attention.

He held his head with his hand, elbow on the table. Looking around, he see the familiar faces from the walk to school.

Ruby and Yang sat up front, while Blake and Weiss were right behind them. Ren sat in the middle, with Nora behind him. Whenever Nora was at class, it was easy to spot her looking at Ren more often than anything else.

Ruby was busy scribbling something on her notebook, while Yang seemed interested on what her sister was doing. Weiss was reading a book and doing some work, like Blake. Ren looked like he was paying attention.

He turned his head to the right to see Pyrrha sitting next to him. Model student, paying attention even at this point. Jaune stared at Pyrrha for a little while longer.

Though his attention to her wasn't just because of her beauty. Jaune felt like something was odd about Pyrrha. Her expression seemed forced.

'Is she just putting that face?'

Jaune couldn't back it up. It felt like he was just imagining things. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling. He turned his gaze back the instructor. Gray hair and large mustache. He smirk a little when his belly shook every time he turned.

He continued to tell the story and as it lengthened, Jaune's eyes had gotten pretty heavy. The wake up event he had this morning disturbed his biological rhythm.

It wasn't long till his eyes have fully closed and his body, relaxed. He felt the sleep take over him.

…

this again?

…

*growl*

wait...

*GROWL*

this is...

*ROAR*

a bear?

Black fur...

…

skull?

*ROAR*

what is going on?

Am I dreaming already?

Great, why everything grey now?

"ja-"

Huh?

"Jau-"

who's there?

"jaune-"

Someone's calling my name...

"JAUNE-"

I can't see. Where are you?

"JAUNE A-"

What?

"Jaune!"

His world was shaken back to light. He rose up from his arms looking at the hand who was on his arm. Pyrrha was looking at him with a smile.

"You fell asleep."

"Oh huh, Thanks for waking me."

"Good thing, I think the instructor was about to call on someone."

"Lucky you woke me up.

"Yeah, anyways its time for lunch."

Really? NO bell?

*RING*

Hmm...

Jaune stood up along with everyone. Halls packed with so many students rushing to the cafeteria or they'e next class.

* * *

Jaune head to the cafeteria and got food. He walked by a couple of table with his tray until he found one without anyone occupying it. Just as he was about to sit down, Yang and Ruby arrived with their own trays.

"Hey Jaune!"

"Hey Ruby. Yang."

With a quick exchange of a few greetings they started eating lunch. Yang and Ruby talked about how boring they're previous class was. Jaune made an input about falling asleep.

"Lucky. I can't do that cause I sit at the front." Ruby munched on her nuggets.

"Hey you wanted to be up at the front closer to the door sis."

Out of the corner of Jaune's field of vision. He noticed girl with long brown hair walking with an open soda can. Jaune had no idea why he suddenly felt the need to look at the girl. As she was walking, he noticed Cardin and his friends making lots of noise about some jokes. He switched back at the girl about to walk past them. Suddenly the girl swayed to her side where she was holding her soda. Cardin stood up in time for the can to be dumped all over him. Jaune had caught something odd about it. The way she moved, its as if she was moved by the can. His friends went silent and this silence expanded through out the cafeteria.

"What's the big idea?"

His scream sent the girl a step back.

"I-I don't know. I'm sorry! I think I tripped on something." Girl shook trying to find the item that tripped her.

There was none.

"Cut the crap! What are you going to do about this?" Cardin presented the large stain on his black shirt and all over his blue jeans.

Some of the students were started standing, slowly crowding the area. Jaune felt the need to stand and started walking passed other people. Jaune doesn't understand himself why he was even moving to their location. While walking passed people he noticed a certain red haired beauty from a far, also standing. Weiss was right next to her. What made Jaune stop in his tracks was the expression on her face. He was too far to make out her mouth, but as he squinted his eyes. He could almost see her.

'Is..is she smiling?'

Jaune would be able to see it more clearly if he were any close, but that small curl on her lips made. It made it look like she was smiling. There should be no doubt about it, it was so inconspicuous, but that small curl on the side of her mouth and those neutral looking eyes. WHile everyone had the look of curiosity, Pyrrha did not share the same. Jaune thought why she would be smiling at this time.

"Gah!"

Jaune turned to see where the commotion was.

"Answer me!"

Cardin had grabbed the girl by the collar. Clearly this guy had no care for gender. His fist grabbed a whole chunk of her shirt, ripping the buttons off. Jaune rushed and pushed Cardin off the girl. This was going too far. Cardin backed off and gave Jaune a confused expression.

"Back off Cardin! It was an accident."

"Ohoho! Hero to the rescue! You really want to do this cupcake?"

Jaune only stood there. The girl had moved into the crowd that was gathering around him and Cardin.

Jaune immediately ducked as Cardin threw a punch.

It was on.

Before Jaune knew it, this became a fight really fast.

Cardin threw another punch.

Jaune's reflexes made his left arm shoot up and blocked his punch.

Cardin didn't stop. He grabbed Jaune's collar and raised him.

"This is the part where you lose!"

Over my dead-

Something echoed in Jaune's head.

It felt like something he should say.

Before Jaune could react, he felt a sharp pain on his stomach and his vision blurred. Cardin let him fall to the ground. Jaune felt so much pain in his stomach. He could the food he just ate almost come out. Unable to break his fall, the impact of the floor when he fell hit really hard at the side of his temple.

"Jaune, are you okay?" His vision cleared and saw a girl knelt down beside him.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune's voiced barely reach out of his mouth. He looked up to see a woman with glasses and small twirl on her hair break up the crowd.

"Cardin, that's enough!" It didn't take long until the crowd was dispersed and went back to their respective groups, but now whispering about what just place a moment ago. Pyrrha raised Jaune and walked him towards his table. Yang help him as well.

"You okay, Jaune?" Ruby put her hand on his shoulder.

"I'll be fine. Just trying not to throw up what I ate." That punch really rattle his insides. He had grasped it with is hand, touch was painful, but somehow putting pressure was soothing.

"You wouldn't want that happening in front of everyone." Yang smiled.

"Jaune do you need to go to the nurse's office? I'll take you there."

Jaune looked at Pyrrha. He was really close now. He looked at her face. No trace of oddness he could find, just a worried girl and careness.

"It okay Pyrrha. I'll be fine. I might spill if I started walking right now." He moved his face away before anyone can catch a blush. He took a deep breath and felt his gaze scanning the room.

Weiss continued eating. She paid no mind to the events unlike her "friends." His eyes locked with Blake.

It was only for a moment, but Jaune could have sworn she gave him a small smile, before she looked away. Jaune's eyes haven't cleared to well, so he wasn't able to confirm if she really did smile. It wasn't full, but it felt like the same smile Jaune always loved.

"Thank you! I'm sorry!"

The same brown haired girl from before stood in front of Jaune. She had some tears on her eyes.

"Its okay."

"Sorry I got you in this state. It was my fault."

"What happened?" Ruby faced the girl.

"I don't know. I was just walking with my drink, then I feel my arm move and I started leaning."

"Did you step on something?" Yang had been curious about it too.

Jaune felt Pyrrha's had grip his shoulder a bit tight.

'What's wrong?'

Jaune didn't want to say that. He sat there and took a deep breath. Looking at he Pyrrha's face, seeing how dead blank her it was. The pain in Jaune's stomach discontinued the curiosity he had about Pyrrha's sudden change of face.

'Still hurts.'

Jaune can only hope things will get better from here on out.

* * *

School was finally over. It only took a few hours before it did.

Jaune was relieved, but the pain in his stomach still lingered. Fortunately it didn't hurt as much as before. He was out of school and walked home.

He went on ahead, saying good bye to the sisters. They had offered to walk home with him in case something goes wrong with his stomach pains. To which he politely declined. He started contemplating those events from before.

'Why'd Pyrrha smiled back there?'

'Was she smiling? Smirking?'

He went back to the fight.

'my hand just shot up.'

He look at his left arm and flexed his hand.

'It felt natural for some reason.'

'What was up with Pyrrha?'

he remember her hand gripping his shoulder when the girl was apologizing to him.

-This is he part where you lose!-

He remember what Cardin said.

-Over my dead...-

'where did that come from?'

Jaune knew that voice. It was only natural to remember his own. He could only sigh in frustration. So many questions and no answers. That moment, he was a hero and punching bag. At least he got a reaction from Blake. That was the first time she has done anything towards him really.

One thing he thought of next was that dream right before Pyrrha woke him.

'black fur and skull again.'

'What the hell is that all about...'

Then he remember the voice.

'That was a guy's voice...Sounded old. He was calling my name.'

JAUNE A-

'What was he saying?'

Jaune shook his head. He wasn't getting anywhere with questions in his head. He needed to go home and relax. What was so important about these things anyway? He was just chasing paranoia and curiosity. These were just hid mind running wild. There shouldn't be anything he should be worrying himself about. The mmind only creates imaginations of things.

He stopped suddenly, seeing someone stand in front of him.

This boy had a mohawk hairstyle, oddly colored light green.

He recognized this boy. He was one of Cardin's friends.

"What do you want?"

The boy stared blankly into his eyes.

No response.

Jaune was about to walk around him until the boy swing his arm and sent Jaune flying through the wooden wall of a warehouse.

He had been thinking so much, he passed the turn to his house and ended up near an empty warehouse.

Jaune landed hard, rolling around the wooden debris. His bag was flung elsewhere. He gasped for air, recovering from the shock that he was just hit by something that looked human and was thrown off his feet, through a wooden wall.

"W-what the hell?" Jaune groaned as he rolled over. He could feel the pain in his stomach coming back. He tried to pull himself up, only managing to sit upright. He heard wood cracking and looked to see the boy by the opening in the wall.

The boy's eyes started glowing red. The glow was bright it left the trail as his grabbed his head and started screaming.

The flesh from his body started peeling off, showing black shades of coating. Jaune looked in horror as the person in front of him had his skin rip apart and fall on the floor, revealing what was underneath.

Jaune confirmed it was fur. He slowly stood up, witnessing the boy tear his body apart until he got to the face. The boy's face, ripped apart from the claws piercing through his fingertips, scratching his face off. Jaune had expected his skull to show, but what was underneath started shifting horrible from a normal skull to something more animal.

Its arms grew longer and bone like substance protruded from its arm, covering them. It's body grew larger, wider.

Jaune looked in disbelief of this entity in front of him. This was the same thing he's seen in his dream.

"What the hell are you!"

The entity looked like it finished it's transformation. Steam spewing out of the body. It seemed lifeless at first after it finished thrashing. But in a few seconds, it lifted its head, now focusing its attention at Jaune.

Jaune stood still, wondering what happened to his leg. They were frozen. Frozen in fear. With all his will power, he tried to move his legs.

The entity made a deafening roar.

With this Jaune was able to move, running past the crates in the place, while covering his ears with his hands. The entity followed, swiping the crates away that blocked it.

Jaune was thrown forward as the debris of the crates hit him.

He immediately stood up facing the creature.

He couldn't understand what this thing was.

'A bear?'

The bear like creature stood towering over him. Its massive arm lifting, preparing to make another swing at him. Jaune used his entire power to move as fast as possible to dodge the blow.

Its large claws almost nipped his head.

He rolled away and started running away. He managed to stay hidden among some rubble, but he noticed the creature was sniffing the air.

'This thing is fast for its size. Like a big bear. Looks like it can smell me.'

'What do I do? Do I fight it? That's a stupid idea.'

Jaune was scared. There was litteraly a monster that was hunting him down. Jaune couldn't think of anything else. He looked around and found an aluminum trash can cap to protect himself. He looked at the long metal pole.

'Maybe I can use that.'

He tried to pick up the pole, but its weight was larger than Jaune expected. He quickly dropped it and searched among the rubble. Among the ruble was a machete. He picked it up and used it with his right arm.

'Better than anything else.'

He had already forgot the pain in his stomach. He brushed this off as adrenaline kicked in. The crates in front of him crashed as the creature found him. He raised his makeshift shield and prepared to dodge the creature's attack. He waited for the right moment until the creature makes a move, then he will strike. It swung with one arm and Jaune found the opening. He rushed and slashed the creatures stomach. The creature lashed one more. Jaune raised his shield and managed to stop the blow. Jaune was amazed he was able to land a hit AND block a blow from this large creature, but his amazement blinded him from the speed of the creature's continuous attack..

He was sent flying once more crashing onto some wooden boxes. Jaune was getting impatient. He wanted to live and from the looks of it, he had to fight to live. And this thought had rushed him into trying to fight rather than his failed attempts of flight.

Jaune watched his hand holding his shield. He felt like there was something there in his wrist, but he couldn't pin point it. He could feeling that the shield he was carrying was nostaligc. That something like this was normal and he had felt it from somewhere.

He threw the thought away and looked at the creature, growling.

'This is it.'

With one final breath, Jaune ran, screaming at the creature.

It was at this moment the creature was also at the midst of attacking him.

Jaune had suddenly realized he was way over his head. He was too blind, he was a terrible fighter and fighting this horrid creature that only lived in his nightmares was just all to chaotic.

He wasn't going to kill this thing.

He didn't even know what this thing is.

There was no stopping now.

From the looks of it, The creature was going to kill him.

Suddenly he felt his left arm being raised by his shield. The blow landed, his shield blocking the blow.

It made him kneel, but it also gave him the right position to swing.

With a mighty scream, he swung his machete as he propelled himself up.

His blade passed through its neck

And off came its head.

A loud thud as it landed on the ground.

Followed by a larger thud as the body of the creature fell.

Jaune panted and he continued to do so as he dropped his makeshift weapons.

The bear like skull head laid there lifeless.

Jaune's eyes widened. His breathing speed up. He failed to realized that he wasn't alone. A figure from afar, who had watched all that transpired, left.

His body shook up as it was engulfed with white light. He screamed, but no noise came out of his white light surged through his body. It felt strong and painful, yet warm. This force lifted him a few inches from the ground. His eyes glowed blue. His black hair receding its color to a more bright yellow tone.

Jaune fell to his knees. His eyes were no longer glowing, but were blue.

He looked at his hands, coated with white light.

And his chest.

A symbol of two arcs.

Suddenly his body cringed and stiffened.

A surge of energy engulfed him once more.

He started seeing images. Most were so familiar to him. He started understanding things now.

The surge ended, leaving him in silence. His heavy breathing echoing though the walls. He stood up, and looked for his bag, not even wondering about what happened. Ironically he found his bag not to far from him.

He walked to where his bag and went straight home.

His travel was silent. Both verbally and mentally.

He didn't even bothered to eat. He simply dropped his bag and went straight to bed.

He was back to darkness...

* * *

The next morning he woke up before the alarm went off. He can't put his finger on it but for some reason he felt great. He thought about the event that happened yesterday after school. It felt like a dream to him. He looked at himself and the damaged the creature he faced yesterday were all gone. He's clothes were not even scratched.

He stood up and looked at the mirror in his bathroom. No cuts or bruises.

He noticed his eyes and his hair. 'they weren't blue before...why is my hair blonde?'

He rubbed his hand through his hair, eyeing the roots. He can even see his eyes brows and the hair on his body, all blonde.

Everything didn't make sense to Jaune. There was only one thing he can see for proof. He straightened the black hoodie he had been wearing yesterday put on his shoes. He left and went straight to the warehouse. He could not comprehend what he saw.

The warehouse was undamaged. There were no signs of struggle or and broken crates.

He walked inside to search for proof.

There were none.

His shoulders slumped. This doesn't explain is eyes and hair.

'I'm going crazy. This isn't my week.'

She felt the energy he had this morning disappear.

He looked at his hands.

'The light! What was that?'

Jaune looked around. He knows he fought here. He knows he saw that boy transformed into a black bear with a skull. He knows he killed it.

And the light.

Jaune looked at his hands and flexed them.

'There was light.'

Jaune took at deep breath and closed his eyes.

He felt something within him. Something warm.

His soul.

His soul was screaming.

In his mind he can hear his own voice.

It was screaming.

The voice of his soul was telling him something.

REMEMBER!

Jaune's eyes opened, the light returned. The two arcs appearing on his chest glowed, and his body shrouded by white light.

"I am..."

He recalled the voice that he heard back in class. Someone else was calling him.

"My name..."

And there he knew.

He unclasped his ID from his clothes.

He stared at it.

-Jaune Luna-

He let it drop to the floor.

"My name..."

The visions he saw that day and the voice calling him.

"Is JAUNE ARC..."

He felt the nostalgic feeling creeping back to him. He was something else. Something other than a highschool boy getting by his academies.

"and I..."

There was no mistaking it. Something within Jaune screamed for what he is and Jaune listened.

"I am a Hunter."

_To be continued..._


	3. Echoes

Jaune stood for a while, thinking about this new found revelation. The only proof he has of right now is these memories. Memories that felt foreign, but he felt that they were more real than what he was feeling normally.

How was this going to aid him?

What do they mean?

Jaune looked down at his ID and starred at the name inscribed on it.

-Jaune Luna-

Reading it became foreign to him. It was his name, but his last name wasn't right.

"Jaune Arc… That is my name. I will never forget it."

From the time he had beaten the bear, he had seen things flash before his eyes. Images that was mysterious to him, but nostalgic. Something about the things he saw opposes the life that he is in.

And in addition, every person he saw in his dreams, their face was clouded.

'Why can't I see their faces?'

Jaune ran his hand on through his hair and tried his best to think deeply, but to no avail. No matter hard he tries, he couldn't make out their faces. Jaune thought to himself now of what he was going to do. Something was definitely wrong around here and that aftermath of the fight from yesterday proved something on was up. He looked at his hand where he held the make shift shield. He wonders about the strange feeling he felt when his shield somehow moved to allow to block the bear's attack. The feeling was so nostalgic, but it wasn't enough to stir any memory or emotion.

Just feelings. Jaune didn't plan on staying in this place. He looked back at his ID and left. It was early in the morning and he had some time before getting ready for school.

School…

'Is that even necessary right now?' What was Jaune going to do? Yesterday, he just encountered a boy who mutated into a black bear.

Speaking of the boy…

'That guy. If I killed that bear, I must have killed him.' Jaune then thought back at the undamaged warehouse. He might as well check. He fixed up something to eat before heading out. Jaune couldn't shake the thought in his head as he cooked.

'Why do I need to eat?'

'What is all this for.'

As he finished cooking his food, he stared at the stove, still hot from being used. He looked at his hand and remembered the light from yesterday. He clenched his fist and slowly moved it to the stove. He inched his hand ever so closer. He could feel the heat from the stove, radiating to his hand. He then quickly pulled his hand back and backed back and forth.

"No. No. This is crazy. What am I doing."

He paced back and forth, casting a look on the stove. After a few seconds of pacing, Jaune stopped.

"Just do it."

He put his hand into the stove and pulled back from the pain.

"God da... Hmmmm!" He gripped his hand from the pain. It was quick, but the metal rails of the stove were very hot. He looked at his hand, seeing the redness and the rust from the rails. He can feel the pain an dit showed.

He took a deep breath.

"There's more to it…"

… _bears our burdens…_

Jaune tried his best to visualize the time he heard that line from.

… _shields our hearts…_

No matter how hard he tries, all he could remember was a faint voice. A voice he was supposed to remember. Yet once again he couldn't pinpoint it.

_...like a force field…_

This time he remembers that one.

His own.

"Force field huh?" This time Jaune closed his eyes and concentrated an imaginary force in his head that coated his hand. He imagined the white light shrouding his hand. He thought of a veil that would protect his hand. Suddenly he could feel warmth in his hand. He opened his eyes and noticed his had encased by a very faint white light. He inched his hand towards the rail and tested it once more.

He could feel the heat, but it was tolerable. He watches his hand lay flat against the hot rails of the stove.

_..._ _Aura_...

"Aura..."

This was the name of the energy he felt surge through him yesterday. What he felt this morning when he remembered who and what he is. Though Jaune only remembers his name and that he was a hunter. Along with that is a series of vague, nostalgic images and unfamiliar voices. That was all that he go from yesterday.

Now he has found how to control this power. It may be minute, but at least he knows that it is there. After this event, he ate his food and headed out, earlier than usual.

* * *

He had arrived at school much earlier than any time he had been. He didn't see anyone he was familiar with on the way. Most likely they are just about to leave their houses. Jaune was afraid everyone will stare at him for his... new look.

Yet no one paid any attention.

He sat by the cafeteria tables inside the school, noticing others chit-chatting with one another. He held his chin in his hand.

'What am I going to do about this?'

Jaune felt it that question repeating since his place. It was true. He knows something is off, but just knowing that without anything else was no different from not knowing. This time, he was bothered. He closed his eyes and stop thinking about what he was going to do. He reflected back on his aura.

'If I can use this, his punches would hurt less or maybe none at all.'

'Can other see aura?' Jaune felt it would be a bad decision to light up his hand in front of a crowd, not knowing if it was visible to others.

'Guess I have to practice this when I'm alone.'

He closed his eyes once more and let his thought take over.

_...have you ever felt like you're being watched…_

Jaune's eyes shot open and he kept still. He couldn't explain it. There was a tingle in his body he couldn't explain, but he could feel like it was pointing him somewhere. He lifted his eyes a bit and looked around with his eyes without turning his head.

The feeling was still there. He scanned the room. If what the voice he heard from his head were true, aura can certainly be the explanation of this feeling. He was being watched. He scanned the room much more slowly until his eyes connected to another.

'Blake?'

The moment their eyes met, Blake, who had had been sitting at the back corner reading a book, averted her gaze from him back to her book.

He wondered how far she was.

Around a 100 feet?

Maybe slightly less?

Was his aura able to detect some form of intent of detecting a focused gaze at him? Before he could think further, the same sensation flared. This time, it was behind him. He quickly turned around, scaring who was behind him.

"What the hell?" It was Cardin and his mooks. Jaune stared at the group. His eyes widened to see the same boy he encountered yesterday.

The same boy who turned into a black bear and tried to kill him.

He stood there with a confused look as he felt Jaune looking at him like he was a ghost. Before Cardin could do anything, he noticed one of the instructors walking into the cafeteria to survey the students. He felt no need to speak as he just walked passed where Jaune sat and was followed by his group.

'That's it. Something is not right.' This was the proof Jaune needed. A proof from a mystery that he has yet pinpointed.

"Hey Jaune. Nice hair."

He turned around to see Ruby and Yang sit on the other side of the table.

"Thanks."

"You're early." Yang moved her straight hair to her back.

"I-I woke up early and I didn't really have anything to do at home. So I just came to school early."

"If I woke up that early, I would start watching TV."

"Don't you watch TV when you wake up Yang? You always leave breakfast to me."

"Right! I kinda do." Yang laughed.

He enjoyed talking with these two sisters. But now, he was paranoid. Will these two girls turn into one of those things? Can he still trust them after what has happened?

"Jaune?"

"Yeah? Yes Ruby?"

"Are you ok? You had this scary look in your face." Yang also looked worried.

"It's nothing."

"Is it because of Cardin? What was his deal anyway? I saw him walk up to you."

"I don't know. Probably from that thing yesterday."

"Is your stomach okay?" Jaune ran his hand on his stomach. The pain he had in his stomach was masked by an even greater threat yesterday. It had completely vanished the following day as do all of the things that happened that day.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"That sounds good. Anyways, first period is going to be biology. Ugh that class is so boring. He starts babbling some stories in his life." Maybe this was a good time for Jaune together some thoughts together. If what the instructor on first period will start babbling, just maybe he can sort a plan or something.

"Where's your ID Jaune?"

"Huh?"

"ID?"

Yang pointed at her own ID. Jaune looked down at himself and remembering that he threw it away.

"Must've dropped it somewhere."

"You should probably get another one. Security is very antsy about not having IDs."

"I will. Thanks."

"By the way, were you're eyes that blue?"

"Hmm?" Jaune had to lie. Was it a lie? The color of his eyes being blue felt more natural than the one in his picture. "Yeah, its the light, usually its hard to noticed."

"Its pretty vibrant." Yang made an input with a smile. Jaune could only blush. Which was something Yang also did. Not realizing that comment he made. A lot more students filled the cafeteria, and when the bell rang, these groups converged into the entrance and headed to their lockers. Jaune moved passed the crowded halls to get to his locker.

… _626…_

He looked at the number on the locker. Jaune felt that this from his memories. Yet the number wasn't really helping him think of anything. Jaune got his book and closed his locker. The warning bell rang. He should get going to the room. As he walked he couldn't help, but here tears. He noticed he just passed the girls bathroom. Jaune didn't know what compelled him, but he leaned against a locker nearby. Out from the door came the same brown haired girl he helped yesterday. He noticed her red eyes and a hand over her mouth to cover her muffled cries.

'Why is she crying?'

Jaune inconspicuously hid behind another student arranging the contents of his locker as he noticed another girl coming out of the bathroom. When he saw the girl, he was even more confused.

'Pyrrha?'

She looked around and walked in the opposite direction the other girl went. This situation couldn't even be more confusing for Jaune. He'd never seen Pyrrha interact with that girl ever. Not until yesterday.

Jaune recollected from before feeling Pyrrha's grip when the girl was talking. He didn't feel the need to follow either girl as the time for class was dawning. He suddenly saw Weiss walking to his direction with her head down. Before he put any thought, the person behind him backed up, bumping into him.

Causing him to bump into Weiss.

"What are you doing?" Weiss looked angrily at Jaune.

… _What are you doing…_

'What? Was that…"

"Watch where you're going!" Weiss moved away from him and continued walking to class.

… _watch where you're going…_

Jaune couldn't shake the feeling he had heard her say that before. But he couldn't have. He has never talked to Weiss. Maybe he heard her somewhere.

"Sorry Princess." Jaune muttered under his breath as he followed her to class. Right before he moved he almost collided with another person.

… _It's heiress actually…_

The voice in his head echoed those words as he stared at Blake. She kept her eyes avert from him and walked off quickly without saying a work.

"Sorry Blake."

Jaune knew she heard her, because she stopped walking just for a moment like she was going to say something. Jaune need to sort things out as fast as he can.

* * *

Biology in first period was really boring. Not only you had to sit for an hour and listen about biology, you had to sit through a massive monologue from the instructor's stories. Jaune looked around to see the familiar faces from before. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were sitting in their chairs. He noticed Nora in class again staring at Ren in front of her. This was weird for Nora to be in school for more than a day in a row. She would usually be here a one day and gone for several.

To his right was Pyrrha, giving off that model student mask.

"Remember class! In the darkness, everything works against you! Species learned how to survive in the dark. Take bats for example. They are able to fly in the darkness. They use echolocation to map their surroundings. Hence their acute sense of hearing. Echolocation works by creating a sound and using your ears to map out the return sound that bounces from the surrounding area. Of course, bats are more efficient at it than humans as they are able to pick up a certain level of sound."

'Bats huh?' What interest Jaune more was echolocation.

'To map out surrounding…'

Jaune close his eyes and listened into the voices in his head. He felt crazy about the idea that he had voices in his head that would give him vague things. Voices he couldn't pinpoint or faces he couldn't see well.

… _everyone has it, even animals…_

'Can I use this to detect things? Yeah. The cafeteria proved it.'

Jaune opened his eyes and looked around. This plan of his was crazy. Not only was he still new to this aura business, he was about to do it with a group of people near him.

'If aura is a force field and it can detect intent around me. Then I can certainly use it to detect other aura can't I? That make sense right?'

Jaune fiddled with his thumbs, still nervous about his plan.

'All I have to do is create a burst of aura, it can't be a field that's visible, and so it has to be an outwards force residue. Just like from the cafeteria. If intent can be detected then aura should be also. I just have to do this right.' Jaune closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He focused energy within his chest and channeled this energy up to his head and created a signal.

When he exhaled, the signal spread out. It reached all the way to the instructor. Jaune opened his eyes and noticed a couple of students in his class looking around like something startled them. He saw Ruby looking at Yang gesturing if she also felt it. Yang had nodded, but gestured that she didn't know what it was.

Weiss, Blake, Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha were no different.

'It worked! But why only them?'

Suddenly Jaune saw something new about the people who were startled. He noticed how something about their bodies was different. A shroud of light coated them all. Judging from their expressions, Jaune thought that they couldn't see them. They seemed to be more preoccupied by the signal. Ruby had red all around her. Yaang showed a bright yellow field. Blake had some sort of purple light around her. Weiss had a similar light as Jaune did, but with a tinge of blue.

Ren and Nora shared the same pink hue while Pyrrha's glowed red like ruby with some black along with it. It looks somewhat menacing.

'That's aura.'

Then suddenly it hit Jaune. The people he knew had aura when he sent this 'echo'.

What about the other people?

Why didn't they have aura?

… _the monsters we fight lack a soul…_

Jaune froze.

… _lack a soul…_

'If that is true… Then everyone except the others is just like that boy.'

Jaune felt the need to take more caution. If the aura he generated revealed something like this too him, then he knew even though he was outnumbered, he wasn't alone. Jaune had tried to use the signal once more during classes. The familiar people who had aura didn't all attend his classes. The only one that did was Pyrrha and every time Jaune had sent out the echo, she would be the only one to feel it.

He felt bad to do this to Pyrrha, but surely he couldn't tell her.

* * *

The day dragged on and when the bell rung for lunch time, Jaune bolted from his seat and straight to the cafeteria. The room had been almost full already. Seems people wanted lunch so much today. Judge by how classes goes, lunch time was the best time in school. This time, there were a lot more people in the room.

Jaune had to create a larger echo. He close dhis eyes and concentrated this echo. When he exhaled, the signal spread through the cafeteria. Before Jaune opened his eyes, he suddenly felt an eerie silence in the room.

'Why is everything so quiet?' Suddenly Jaune felt a huge flaring sensation in his body. It was everywhere. He slowly opened his eyes. He looked around to see everyone staring at him. Every single people in the room fixed their eyes toward him. Jaune had never felt so much fear. He couldn't see any field of aura and he was alone. Are they all going to turn into monster now? He felt his heart pace faster and faster. The heavy feeling of being the center of attention while knowing that the 'people' around you weren't people at all.

In a swift, the noise came back to fill the room. He noticed Yang and Ruby just entering the room, followed by a couple more students, plus those in his class. Jaune had never felt so relieved to hear the noise. It beat the soul crushing silence that he was alone. Yang and Ruby had gotten their food and head to Jaune's table.

"Hey, Yang."

"Yes?"

"Do you and Ruby have the same class together?"

"Yep! Me and my sis are stuck with each other since the first day."

"Don't make it sound like a bad thing sis."

Jaune had never seen these two by themselves.

'That's a good thing. At least they have each other.' Jaune stared at Ruby as she ate her food. After some time, he missed the chance to notice his eyes closing and drifting off to a light sleep. Jaune saw a girl in white walk away from a girl in red. He also noticed a girl in black walking away. Jaune looked at his hands.

Brown, fingerless gloves.

… _Welcome to Beacon…_

Jaune found himself standing over the girl in red.

… _Hi, I'm Jaune…_

Jaune held out his hand.

… _Ruby…_

She reached to grab his hand.

Jaune suddenly felt her grasp strengthen. He suddenly got pulled down to her, her face right up against his own. Her face suddenly turned bloody. There was so much blood in her face and bloody tears streaming down her face. Voices of screaming in pain filled his ears. It's as if the whole world was screaming for help.

_JAUNE HELP ME!_

Jaune opened his eyes followed with his panting breath. He stared at the sisters in front of him.

"Uh...You okay?" Yang had stopped eating and looked at him.

"Yeah, must have dozed off."

"Right… Anyways, aren't you going to eat?"

Jaune had forgotten to take food from the line when he came. He was so focused on using the echo that he had forgotten lunch.

'That was a bit disturbing.' He looked at Ruby who continued eating.

'That must mean something.'

Jaune had to do something.

Suddenly he felt a hand on top of his. He looked and saw Yang looked at him.

"Jaune, are you sure, you're okay?"

Jaune looked back at Yang's hand on top of his. He felt something.

Heat…

The same heat he felt when he put his hand on the stove.

"I am. Thanks for worrying."

* * *

Jaune enduring the boring final half of school hours and went home. Just like how he bolted to the cafeteria, Jaune left school grounds as fast as he can. He needed some time to think. He needed time to make a plan to figure the mysteries out. He looked up to see the moon, noticing some visible cracks in its surface. It was a bit more than last time.

'Looks like the more I know about things, the more that thing crumbles.'

The cracks were too small of a difference than last time. He wanted to prove his theory, he must make know more. He avoided walking passed his house towards the warehouse. He didn't want to be anywhere near there. He dropped his things and lay in his bed. He stared at the ceiling, carefully making sense of the events that happen today.

'Aura seemed to have many applications. There are only a few people in school who possess aura. Not only that, it means that everyone else is just like that boy.'

'I won't be able to test out my aura and figure things out if I am around anyone.' The events today proved that he needed support.

Jaune asked himself what he was going to do to get support.

_How?_

All this thinking tired Jaune. Using echo to detect other people for the whole day was a bit exhausting. Jaune need sleep.

Maybe this time…

He was going to find some answers.

As fortune favors, Jaune was given just a sliver of gold.

* * *

_JAUNE!_

This voice, sound like an old man…

_JAUNE! CAN YOU HE- M-_

Who are you?

_CAN H- HEA- U-?_

I think so… but wh are you

_T-IS O-N, YO- -UST GE- T—EM OU-_

What?

_YO-R –LL TRA-ED! IT'S…_

Why can't I hear you clearly?

_GRI-! G-T –VRY-NE OU-!_

Are you saying get… everyone out?

_FIN- AW-Y!_

Are you?

_OZ— WE'R- LOS-N- -IM!_

Then there was silence…

And also darkness

Memories started speeding through him.

Feathers…

Large black feathers…

Somewhere Jaune hears his voice…

… _Guys, that's thing's circling around. What are we going to do..._

His question was followed by a muffled noise.

He looked around. Their faces still clouded

_Why can't I see any of you!_

He grabbed his face, frustrated by this blockade.

He tried to calm himself down and slowly looked at his hand.

Jaune remembers the morning and heat.

He also remembers a similar heat he felt today.

He moved that hand from his face and stared at the girl in front of him.

… _Having some trouble there, Lady Killer..._

For once, Jaune woke up slowly. He rose up from bed and was hit by the light of the sun outside his window.

He recalled his dream, hearing a man who seemed to be talking to him. Part of this voice was muffled, but Jaune was able to figure out that he had to get everyone out.

Jaune pressed the bridge of his nose, focusing on the words he heard in his dream. He found it odd that he was able to recollect the dream. Normally one wouldn't remember the dream fully.

'Was he talking about the people with aura?'

He looked at his hand and remembers the end of his dream.

Heat…

…  _Having some trouble there, Lady Killer..._

There was no mistaking it. Even though the girl he saw looked different. He was able to see her face.

The connection he felt when he saw her face was the same as it was when he was in the cafeteria.

When someone was worried about him…

Yang…

_To be continued..._


	4. Heat

This was the plan.

Talk to Yang.

Tell her about the monsters.

Tell her about aura.

Tell her about his dreams.

Make her think he was crazy.

Never be able to speak to Yang ever again. No matter what he does, Jaune can't get a better plan than to talk to her. How was he going to pull this off? He needed to tell Yang about everything. Everything he knows. He didn't want to scare her. He thought back to how he remembered who he was. It was during a time when he was scared and threatened. Was he going to have to threaten Yang?

"No way. I will never want to hurt her." Jaune remember the worried look she gave him back at the cafeteria. He would never want to destroy that image of her. He looked at the mirror in the boy's bathroom. He had been leaning on the sink, shoulders slouched. He looked at his new ID. He glared at it. There was no stopping it. He had to were this idea when he's at school.

-Jaune Luna-

'That is not my name.' He lifted his idea and turned it around.

'If I can see her aura, then she's like me. And if she's like me then she can remember right? Right?'

Jaune remember that yang wasn't much of a fighter even if Ruby was involved.

'Maybe she's not strong enough…'

Jaune couldn't do this alone, but he was afraid to hurt Yang.

He also thought about convincing others, but Yang was the only one he had some memories about and he was somewhat close to her. Pyrrha was another option, but Jaune remember the times he saw her for the past days.

That odd smile in that cafeteria…

Her hand gripped when the girl was talking to him…

The time when she left the girls bathroom after seeing the girl he saved walked away crying…

Jaune didn't think he was ready to know what was up with her.

And that aura...

No matter how hard Jaune tried, he could not pull up any memories of her.

Ren and Weiss would probably think he was an idiot and would probably make him feel depressed. Nora would probably hit Jaune if he spouted nonsense. Blake was out of the option. The only time he ever talked to her, or if you could call it like that was, was when Jaune apologized on almost bumping into her. If Jaune had hurt Ruby, Yang would never forgive him.

Yang had to be the one like him.

The most important thing about this is how he going do this. Jaune washed his face and left the bathroom.

The empty halls were so creepy. Jaune didn't want to stay in the hallway for much long or this school, but he didn't have much of a choice if he wanted to uncover this.

Walking along the vacant hallway, he suddenly felt the need to peek at one of the classrooms, curious as to see if there was anyone he knows. He saw the instructor pointing at the chalkboard, talking about something. It only took a moment before everyone in the classroom looked at towards him through the window of the door. Jaune hid from the window, scared as he is as he was noticed. He moved from the door, frightened.

Before walking away he felt curious enough if what he saw was real. He peak his head to the next door window. He saw someone staring back at him from the other side, eyes all red, skin all white. He quickly moved away, tripping down on the floor. He looked around and saw the other doors had the same eyes looking at him. Jaune scrambled up from the floor and quickly moved to his classroom.

He tried to ignore the faces on the doors. He didn't bother looking. He felt that the more he looked, the more they became more and more of a monster. He reached the back door of the classroom and opened it.

"Jaune? What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Yang?" She stood in front of the door. It looked like she was getting out. He looked around and found the halls already crowded by students.

"It's time for lunch Jaune." Jaune moved out of the way and let Yang through. He followed closely as the moved through the students.

"Okay. Yang, mind coming with me first for a sec? Let me get my stuff." He hustled back to the classroom and hurried back to Yang, who was waiting for him with a confused look on her face.

"S-Sure." Yang took his things and grabbed Yang's wrist.

"Jaune?" He led her down the hall, pushing past the 'people.'

"I need to talk to you about something." Jaune walked pretty fast while Yang tried to follow his pace. On the other hand, Yang started to flush at Jaune's hand around her wrist. He looked back to see the other students started turning their heads towards him. Jaune feels like something catching onto him. Their stares cutting through Jaune's words.

"What did you want to talk about Jaune?"

"I uh, wanted to ask you something." Jaune could feel the eyes burning on the back of his head.

"Yeah?"

"Let's get to the cafeteria first." Reaching upon the place, he looked around and saw everyone he knew with aura. This felt much safer than the hallway or anywhere else. He figured Yang would want to get food first before he could start so he led her to the line.

"Jaune..."

"Yes Yang?" He stared at the girl in front of of him. Yang averted her eyes with a faint blush on her cheeks. it took Jaune a moment until she used her freehand to point at the hand Jaune was holding.

Jaune stared at his hand holding her wrist and remembered that this was the first time he had held her hand.

Well, in this life.

He let go of Yang's hand and whispered an apology, followed by a nervous laughter.

"It's okay. It's nothing Jaune." Of course that blush never left her face. Jaune caught that blush and remembered somewhere in his dream that he had seen that face of hers on with a more...less straight hair.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the 'things' behind Yang looking at him. Even with everyone in the room, he was not safe from these stares. Jaune looked down, hiding his expression from Yang. After getting food they moved towards a free table and sat down. He looked around, noticing that her sister was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Ruby?"

"She's with the instructor. Probably about the drawing she did.

'I stand corrected.'

Yang started eating her food along with Jaune.

"So what did you wanted to talk to me about?" Everywhere Jaune looked, he sees someone meeting his gaze.

"Jaune?" Jaune didn't really knew what he was going to ask. Once more he felt the need to hid behind a girl for protection from the 'things' looking at him.

'It'd be best if it's just the two us.'

"Yeah. Right. I wanted to ask if you were free after school."

"Uh, Yeah. I'm free, what did you have in mind?" Yang stopped eating. She was curious as to what bought this on.

"I wondered if I can come over to your place."

"Why?" Yang's response was more curious than defensive. Yang thought it was odd that Jaune would ask to come by to her house. A little awkward since they weren't too close for the coming over part. The thought of allowing Jaune to go to her house started to make her cheeks blush.

'Why? That's good question. Why indeed. Why?' Jaune had to think of a reason that was legit enough to satisfy Yang.

"I thought we could study together for the upcoming test."

"Oh. Uh. I guess we can. Sure." Jaune felt the disappointment in Yang's voice when she said 'Oh.' Jaune thought of what she was expecting, wondered why she sounded so disappointed.

"I'll meet you at the gates after school."

"Yep." Jaune suddenly felt awkward. Usually this situation would have him leave.

"Hey guys!" Ruby walked up to them.

"Hey Ruby."

"What did he want Sis?"

"He got really mad, but he let me off with a warning."

"That sounds good. Try not to do that again."

"Alright Sis. Oh, by the way, I'm going to be going to my friend's house tonight so don't wait up for me Yang ok?" Jaune noticed that Yang was a bit fidgety as he realized that he and Yang will be at their place all by themselves.

"What's wrong?" Ruby leaned in and looked at her sister, who was trying to hide her face with her straight hair.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong. Make sure to eat dinner there okay?"

"We'll do."

Jaune though that Ruby not being there might be a good idea. Afterwards, they continued eating. Jaune could still see others giving stares. He didn't know what they want, but the stares were giving the creeps.

"Jaune?" He looked up to see Pyrrha walking towards him. Jaune felt odd to see Pyrrha walking up to him. Pyrrha rarely talks to him. Even if he was sitting next to her they barely talked. The oddest thing is how Pyrrha talks to Jaune like they were familiar with one another. Jaune contemplated about her. He wished knew how he felt about her. Things were just a bit conflicting.

"Pyrrha? What's up?" Pyrrha sat beside him and leaned close.

"You think I can see you after school?" She whispered to his ear.

"It won't take long. Just meet me at the cafeteria." He looked at Yang, thinking if she could hear her.

"Sure."

"Good, I'll see later." With that Pyrrha stood up and left.

"What did she want Jaune?" Jaune turned to Yang and looked at her.

"She just needed to tell me something later today."

"What did she say?"

"She didn't say." This little event made the lunch between Jaune and Yang a bit awkward.

* * *

No matter how hard Jaune tried, time couldn't move any faster. It was worse when he had a plan in process and that waiting to execute the start of the plan meant that he had to wait for hours.

So much waiting…

Fortunately, there weren't anything too important going on in school so this might be the best time to think about what he was going to do. He would have to ease up the situation. He would need to talk about dreams first. See if she had weird dreams lately. Then Jaune would try to ask her about the weird things going on. All that's left is to build up some momentum to make her remember who she is.

Jaune had hoped that he wouldn't have to threatening her. He sat there in the cafeteria, waiting for Pyrrha. His knee started shaking as he continued to wait. He didn't want to keep Yang waiting and his plan being delayed. Not long afterwards, he saw Pyrrha emerged from the doors, past the other students.

He stood up as she was coming towards him.

"Hey Pyrrha. What did you want to talk about?"

"Has Cardin been bothering you?" Pyrrha went straight to the point.

"Nnnot really." Jaune felt a bit confused. Pyrrha had been one of the people he knew had aura but, none of his memories of this world make any sense. It felt as though Pyrrha was so protective of him.

"I saw him walk up to you this morning."

"Yeah, but he didn't really do anything."

"You sure?" Pyrrha stared at his eyes. For Jaune, this was the first time he'd been this close to a girl.

Or was it?

Pyrrha put his hand on his chest. This scene felt awfully familiar for Jaune.

… _close your eyes…_

"Let me know if anyone is bullying you ok?"

"Yes. I'll be sure to let you know." Cofnused even more, he had no choice, but to agree. Since when was Pyrrha so protective for him? Pyrrha smiled and walked away, most likely to go home. Jaune noticed Weiss walking passed her in a hurry. She even bumped into a few girls without even stopping to apologize or make a comment.

… _sheesh, what's with her…_

These words had been occurring to Jaune lately. The words in his head had been coming up to him lately in certain situations. Jaune thought that these recurring words were from memories he kept seeing. Jaune didn't want to keep Yang waiting so he rushed out of the cafeteria to meet her at the gates. He ran as fast as he could to the gates. Yang stood by the end of the gates, the afternoon sky matched the color of her golden hair. Jaune never really paid attention on how beautiful her hair was.

But Jaune felt that the straight her wasn't her thing. Something was missing.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Yang."

"It's alright. We should get going."

"Yeah let's go."

Yang and Jaune walked side by side together silently. He though it would've been better if he had had specified to go to her house instead of walking her. Walking silently together was awkward for the both of them. Jaune looked around, trying to keep an eye out in case they get attacked. He used what he knew about his aura to see if there were any following them.

Fortunately, they were alone and Yang's place was closing by.

"Thanks for letting me study with you Yang."

"Yeah. Not a problem."

"Did Ruby go on ahead?"

"She went straight to her friend's house."

He looked up at the moon. It hasn't changed. The cracks were still there, unchanged.

"Hey Yang…" He stopped. Yang didn't notice and turn to her house.

"Yeah?"

"Can you see the moon?" Yang looked up at the sky.

"Yeah."

"There's nothing weird about it right?"

"No. Why?"

"Nothing." He turned toward Yang.

"Ok." She turned and opened the door.

He stepped into a small apartment and took of his shoes. He followed Yang passed the living room and into the kitchen. This was the first time Jaune has been in someone else's house. He felt odd and out of place. It felt like he didn't belong here.

"Would you like something to drink?"

"No thanks." Jaune looked around to see a small television and ordinary furniture around the living room.

"What do your parents do for a living Yang?"

There was a short pause from the kitchen.

"My mom travels the world with my dad. It's part of their job." He looked around and saw a picture of Yang and Ruby with the parents. He scanned the table and saw another picture with Ruby and another woman.

"Who's?"

"That's Ruby's mom. She passed away." Jaune could feel the sadness from her voice. Though it felt a bit wrong. He looked at Yang's mother. Something deep in him, he remembered something Yang from his dream had told him about her mother.

'Yang's mother is here. That can't be right...'

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Here, let's go to my room and start studying. Let me get changed first."

"Yeah. Go ahead." Yang went to her room and closed the door.

Jaune was left by himself.

'This is getting harder than I thought.'

The things he just found out were making his plan much harder to do. Stray thoughts from Yang's words have gotten in his head. He can't be thinking about that. If he does, he might mess up and worse, Yang wouldn't be able to trust him.

He had to do this.

For Yang.

"Hey Jaune! I'm okay now."

"Be right there." Jaune took another look at the pictures around and headed to Yang's room.

The door was opened slightly and when Jaune stepped in. She was in black shorts and a Yellow tank top. Jaune has never seen Yang like this. It felt like this was private. That low cut of her tank top ha a clear view of her cleavage. To which Jaune tried his best to ignore.

Yet this look fits Yang. Something tells him he has seen her like this. Or maybe she was comfortable enough to be around him to dress this way.

Does that make sense?

She sat down on her small table, book already set. He sat down and across of Yang. He looked around to see her room, filled with pillows, books and posters. There were a lot of rock and roll posters around.

"Should we get started?"

He had to act now.

"Wait."

"Hmm?"

"Yang."

'Stay calm.'

"Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Have you had any weird dreams lately?" Jaune looked straight at her eyes. His gaze bearing down to her soul. Jaune has gotten her attention. The atmosphere in the room has changed and Yang feels it.

"What do you mean?"

"Dreams. Have you had them recently? If so, do they feel a bit real?" Jaune thought of something. Maybe he can use his aura to tell if he was lying.

"I- Not really." Yang had looked back down to her paper and started working on her stuff. One can tell that Yang has gotten a bit nervous as she fumbled with her pen.

"Not even a little?"

"No, I don't think so." He felt a sudden chill in his spine. Jaune feels that she's lying.

"Did you… ever see a bear in your dreams?"

"..What.."

"A Bear."

"…"

"Black fur."

"Boney face?" It was but a whisper, but Jaune heard her. That chill in his spine was right. She dreamt of something.

"So you have."

"How could you know that?"

"So you have?" Jaune repeated.

"No. No I haven't." Yang didn't even look like she was trying. She averted his gaze and started writing again.

"Yang. Stop, look at me." Jaune's voice became more serious. He couldn't believe it himself. Yang stopped and nervously looked at Jaune through her bangs. yang set her hands under the table. Jaune couldn't help, but kick himself mentally. He didn't want her to be scared. There was no going back, he had her attention, he knows she's lying. She knows something.

"Be honest with me Yang. You've noticed something going on have you? About everything."

"Jaune…"

"Yang you have to tell me."

"Jaune stop." There was breaking in her voice. Her hands came to her arms as she held herself.

"Yang, stop beating around the bush. You know as well as I do, something is wrong with everything."

"Jaune I'm confused. They're just dreams. They don't mean anything." He stared into her frightened face. It hurts his heat to push through looking at that face. "And I don't understand what you mean by  _everything_."

"Yes they do. Two days ago I was attacked by one."

"What do you mean?"

"You know that guy with the Mohawk? The one with Cardin? He came up to me after school and attack me. He turned into that black bear. Just like what you saw in your dreams. Not just that! Almost everyone in the school is the same!"

"That doesn't make any sense. If you killed him, why is he still alive? And what do you ean by everyone is the same?." Jaune threw his hands in the air in frustration.

"I know a lot of things don't make sense, but take my word for it. Something's wrong. Something is really wrong." Yang sat silently, looking down at her books. She can't make out what Jaune was telling her.

Denial.

That was what she feels and what she wants to do.

Yang refused to give in.

"Jaune, your scaring me." Jaune can't stop now, but Yang's voice starting to break apart like she was about to cry any moment had stabbed Jaune straight through the heart.

'Can I really do this?'

"Listen to me. Tell me something's wrong about this life. At school? It doesn't feel natural doesn't it? Please! Just tell me! Tell me that you feel something!" Jaune didn't think he was doing a good job. Yang's personality made her back off from threats.

Jaune has to push her.

Push her until she's cornered and hope that she will strike.

Her silence meant that she wasn't going to answer. Jaune held the table and threw it to the side, books stumbled across the floor. Yang scrambled ad backed up to one of her drawers in fear.

Jaune stood up, grasping her shirt, pulling on her band and pulled her to her feet. Yang tried to pull back on the strap of her shirt. Jaune pulling on her shirt had opened a large area of her chest to look at.

Yang feared the worst of what Jaune was going to do to her.

"Yang! REMEMBER!" Jaune was so focused by his mission that he didn't bother realizing what he was doing.

"Jaune, I-I don't know what you're talking about. Stop this." Yang was at the midst of sobbing.

"Yang you can't keep lying to yourself! Admit the things that you see and dream!" Jaune had grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her violently. Simultaneously, Jaune's hands were shaking. He wanted this to stop. The soft whimpering of Yang's voice kept on slicing on his weakened heart. He let her go and let her slumped down on the floor. He saw the shoulder strap of her tank top slide by her shoulder, showing the straps of her bra.

This looked terrible. It looked like he was going to do something unspeakable to Yang. Jaune backed off and slumped at the opposite wall. He ran both of his hands on his hair. If he stops here now, his only choice is to leave.

What would happen then?

Yang would become too meek, traumatized, and unable to trust anyone. Ruby might one day take care of her. He would destroy this girl's future. And whatever connection he had with her. He closed his eyes. He can't stop now. He must jump this. The alternative is hell for both her.

And Him.

He opened his eyes and scanned the room. He found something on her desk that caught his attention.

'No return. I'm sorry Yang.'

He sloppily stood up and scrambled to her desk and grabbed a pair of scissors. He moved towards Yang who was sobbing and grabbed her hair. The moment his hand took a large portion of her hair. She saw the scissors and immediately panicked, thrashing around.

"NO! NO! STOP! PLEASE! STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Jaune pulled her up to her feet.

He held his scissors right up against her face.

"I'm sorry Yang." Jaune made a small whisper beneath Yang's thrashing.

"STOP! STOP! JAUNE! STOP!"

Her screamed pierced his heart so much. The loud cries she made, was so unbearable.

"Talk or I cut your hair."

"PLEASE STOP! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW!"

"I'm sorry."

Jaune moved his scissors high to her hair, and prepared to cut.

Time slowed as Jaune focused on her hair and scissors. The yellow strads of hair reflected onto the blade of the scissors. His hand slowly closing.

…

…

…

…

"I SAID STOP!"

Yang screamed at the top of her lungs.

Jaune heard it. He even felt it reverberate through his entire soul.

Not only had that, his world started moving. The orientation of the room started to turn until the floor was up against his face.

He felt a sharp pain on his face.

He had dropped the scissors at some point. He reached for the side of his cheek where the pain was.

It stung.

And it was warm.

Hot even.

Like he was burned.

He turned and heard heavy panting.

He saw Yang standing over him with a crazed look on her face.

Her eyes no longer lilac…

Red.

And her messy hair…

On fire.

"Yang…" Jaune weakly made a mutter.

Yang slowly looked at her hands, coating in light yellow light.

Heat radiating from them.

He looked across her room and looked at her eyes, bright as red.

"What…What is going on!"

Jaune pulled himself up as fast as he could. The punch Yang delivered square on his face was solid and fast enough that he wasn't able to react with his aura.

"Yang wait!"

"No! Stop! Get away from me!" Yang held her hands up, telling Jaune to move away.

"Yang calm down!" He rose up and tried to move closer to her.

"I said stop Jaune! I don't want to hurt you." She already did, and it was his doing. Jaune thought taking a punch from Yang like how he saw from his dreams was an equal prize to pay for what he has done to bring her to this point.

Yang was still cautious of her actions as she was scared more of what is happening to her than what Jaune did to her.

"Yang! Calm down!" Jaune moved closer. Yang moved away from him and bolted for the door. Jaune grabbed her from behind. Embracing her had started searng his skin. Jaune tried to coat his arms with his aura, but he hasn't practiced coating his whole arms.

He did waht he could. Her hair burned his chest.

"Jaune! Let me go!"

"Ugh…Yang. Calm down. You're almost there. Do you remember?" Jaune tried to speak. Through the heat of the flames, he tried to throw his words out his mouth.

"Jaune please…" Jaune brought Yang to her knees. The mirror she once looked fell down and slumped against the wall.

"Look at yourself." His embrace was lighter now.

"Jaune…" Tears streaming down her face.

"Listen to me."

"…"

"What's your name?"

"…" Yang stared at the mirror.

"What  _is_  your name…"

"Yang Dunkleman…" Her words were weak, the flames dying out, slowly.

"No, your real name." Jaune sat up.

"I…" Jaune let her go.

Her body started to glow gold, shrouded by aura.

In her chest, glows a symbol.

A burning heart.

Her eyes widened a surged images flashed in her eyes. Aura filled her body.

"Yang…"

"…yes…"

"Tell me who and what you are…"

"My name…" Yang's hair started curling. She looked down at her hand, seeing the golden glow of light coating her arms. Jaune was telling the truth. She definitely knew something was wrong and she ran from it. Denying its existence just to live by with ignorance.

But he showed her the way. He had to push her and he got dealt with the aftermath. She dug deep down and felt the familiar flare she had once had. One that she had from a different life.

...

...

...

"I am Yang Xiao Long."She held her head up and looked at her reflection. She gripped he fist. A stray hair curled up on her head.

"And I am a Huntress." Jaune smiled. Now he wasn't alone.

"Welcome back Yang." The girl looked back at him with a sad smile. It only took a few momeents until she found the words to respond.

"Good to be back Vomit boy." She knelt down beside him and held her hand to his face.

"Don't worry. My… Aura will handle it." Jaune motioned his hand on his wound.

"Thanks Jaune."

"Don't worry about it Yang. A punch from you is a small price to pay just to get you back."

"There's a lot that you have to get me up to speed. All I got are images and echoes."

"Don't worry. I may not know all, but I'll do my best."

"By the way…" Yang knelt beside him, looking at the singed clothes.

"Don't ever do that again. Anyone who tries to mess with my hair would either be an idiot or have a death wish." She held his face and looked into his blue eyes.

"But if anyone who tries to do that for the sake of my own and with their well-being on the line, I might just let it slide." With that she kissed his forehead.

"Gosh, I remember trying to get your attention once, and if it takes all this to do that, heh, I must have been doing it all wrong." Yang smiled and pulled him up.

"You got to play the game differently with me." Jaune looked at her and down on his feet.

"Yang, sorry about all of this."

"Don't worry about it. That was a like an hour ago. Come one let's get this fixed up or Ruby might freak out tomorrow."

They started arranging the room. Yang lifted the mirror and hung it on her wall. She started at her hair and ran her hand through the curls.

"I can't believe I had straight her."

"I dunno. The straight hair looked kinda suits you."

"Ain't happenin' Jaune." Yang laughed.

"You have to. Those 'things' out there seems to be catching on to us." Jaune gestured to go outside.

"We can't be too conspicuous or we'd be in big trouble." Jaune and Yang moved outside.

The night skies lit the moon.

"Jaune?"

"Can you see it?" Jaune pointed at the moon.

"Yeah. Now I can. I see the cracks."

"Looks like everything I do seem to put a crack on that thing. There are more, now that you're with me."

Jaune and Yang stood side by side, together. He was going to fight this mess and now he wasn't alone.

Yang broke the silence.

"What's the plan?"

_To be continued…_


	5. Slumbering Dragon

Yang held her books close to her chest. She kept her eyes down, staring at the path ahead of her.

This morning was rough for Yang.

She woke up violently before dawn, thrashing everywhere, screaming about monsters. Jaune came busting in a few seconds after Yang rolled off the bed and grabbed her.

His arms embraced the girl and he tried to calm her down, and reassure her that it was a dream.

Calming her down got Jaune in the process with a few hits to the gut and face.. Yang strength seemed to skyrocket after the events a few hours before.

Yang could recall what she said to Jaune moments after she calmed down. Yang had looked at herself at the mirror seeing her red eyes again and curly hair.

'Is this a dream?' Jaune's response, made a chill run up her spine.

'You? No. I don't think so. But all of this? I think it is.'

Yang learned somewhere that recalling an entire dream was impossible. Yang could beg to differ. She remembered everything that happened in the dream. There were monsters with black fur. Part of their bodies covered in sharp rugged bone like matter, sticking out like spikes. Their faces, terrifying red eyes and skull like head. She remember that she look much differently than she was in the life she was living in. She remembered seeing yellow plates of metallic substance, covering her hands, shooting fire.

She remembered holding a large chess piece in her hand and talking to a girl with black hair.

A girl she could not recognize.

One thing is for sure, looking around in her dream she saw a boy with the same hair as she, looking nervously at the bird in the sky.

A bird whose wings so wide it could block daylight.

But she looked back at the boy.

Aside from the others around her, whom she could not recognize, this boy was familiar to her.

Unlike the rest, faces blurred, the boy's was clear.

It was the same boy who showed her the truth about who and what she was.

He was same boy who comforted her from a terrible dream that nearly tore her mind

The one helped her straight her hair this morning

Of which was a grueling experience for the both of them.

Yang didn't want her hair straightened, but Jaune insisted that it was to keep them on the low.

It took hours.

The little hair sticking up her head was the problem though. Yang didn't want it cut and it won't stay down.

She made a vulgar remark about that to Jaune since he made it clear that it was the case.

Which made the boy upset, but the blush and the smile from the boy meant this was how she should act.

This was her.

The boy insisted she would wear some sort of hat to hide hair protruding from her head.

Yang complained, but in the end, she had to agree with Jaune. He had been in this foreign, yet nostalgic world aor a while and she trusted his words.

Speaking about the boy, after the hair incident, he painfully had to ask Yang to head to school first.

He had to get a change of clothes, explaining that he had worn his get up for a while.

Yang didn't comment.

Going back to her dream, she remembered the great fear she felt, when she saw herself running towards something.

Something important…

A fear of loss…

Something or someone was in front of her and who or what that was, was something dear to her and she was going to lose it.

She remembered reaching for her hands as gigantic, black feathers rained on to the path before her, pierced to the ground.

She slid and felt the world slow down as the one dear to her was going to disappear.

The pain in her heart only grew as she watched, unable to do anything.

Until her thoughts broke from her mind when she heard a pale blonde haired girl whizzed past her, nearly dropping her books.

"Excuse me." Yang noticed Weiss Eberle rushing to the front entrance of the school. It wasn't hard to notice a girl wearing a white dress going to school. short white coat and white formal boots.

A large 2 story building with the words 'BEACON ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL' bolted on the roof.

She watched the girl scurry pass people and disappears into the building.

She stopped short, observing the building, thinking that it should have been a bit bigger.

A colossal structure, whose height and scale, dwarfed this school. At the center, a lighted tower that guided people together. She adjusted the beanie she wore on her head and continued inside. Her sister, Ruby, didn't come home last night and she didn't receive any messages on her phone about her status.

This really worried her.

Everything was different. She became more aware of things and every little thing around her, bother her. Hours before her 'waking up' as Jaune puts it, everything around her seemed normal. She remembered how Jaune stressed that only a certain amount of people were real in the school and the rest were monster hiding under the skin of everyone around her. As much as she tries to tell herself that she was okay, it didn't work. She was scared.

How did Jaune cope with having the knowledge of almost everything around him was a monster waiting to tear their bodies apart to show what it hid under? Yang didn't recall how long Jaune knew, but one thing for certain, just standing in a middle of a crowd, who are beasts of nightmares from within, for a few seconds, had Yang clutching her book tighter than she had ever did before.

She walked past the 'people' and rushed to her locker. She noticed Blake Zech leaning against a wall, reading a book with a tall boy talking to her. She didn't seem to be paying attention. It was only for a moment, but Yang felt odd about seeing Blake. She was just a girl sitting behind her. They've never talked before, but something about her hair was off. Yang felt that Blake should have longer hair. Pixie cut wasn't natural looking for her. What would she need the bow for?

She just had white shorts, black tank top and short black socks. She had monochrome going on for her.

'Maybe it was a bad idea to come to school today.' Yang stood in front of her locker for a moment before decided to open it. She didn't want to deal with anyone or anything that didn't have what she and Jaune had.

"Hey!"

So close.

Yang froze. This day has had her remembering a lot of things, and the day just started.

"I don't think she can hear you, Melanie."

"I think so too, Miltia."

One voice, two people; she definitely remembers this scene. Yang couldn't trust the memories she has in this world or how far it went back. In this world they were called the Tominey Twins.

One thing she can keep true is how the two girls right behind her, twins, nearly dedicated their lives in to making her life a living hell.

Since her life had been turned upside down, this was already hell, but deeper and colder.

"Hey! Blondie! We're talking to you."

"Are you deaf?"

Yang slowly set her books on her locker, and grabbed the locker door.

She can feel her eyes changing colors, her straight bangs and the ends of the hair on her sides had started curling.

She needed to calm down. If she were to blow up right she wouldn't stand a chance now. She was alone and she didn't have the slightest idea how these 'powers' worked.

She tried to endure the anger building up inside her and face the twins like the she would normally do.

She slowly turned around; giving the twins the most believable, nervous look she could muster.

The thought of flaring helped Yang with the look.

"Y-yeah?"

"Finally, she speaks!"

"You remember last week? We like totally told you we needed the essay for the old fart's class." The one with the turquoise eye shadow user her finger and pointed at her chest.

"Yeah, we needed it, like, now!"

Yang tried to remember what these two were talking about. She had so much in her mind to grasp and now she had to deal with these two. Whatever the essays these 'girls' wanted; Yang had no recollection of it now.

She noticed the 'people' around her walking past each other, not even caring about the scene these two were making. They didn't care. They're not people. They're monsters.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" The one white snapped her fingers in her face. Yang focused her attention at the two.

"Where is it?"

Yang knew it wasn't going to end well, but lying was the best she could do.

"S-sorry, I just have to finish them next period."

"I don't believe you."

"Yeah, or else, show us what you got." The short-haired sister held out her hand at Yang.

'Why'd they have to go there?'

Yang focused her sight at the ground. There wasn't much else to do but to spring up another lie. The twins caught her cornered and she can't retaliate.

"I don't have them with me right now." Yang expected the hand to drop but instead, it went straight to her brown sweatshirt. She was pushed back into her locker. Yang felt a small pinch of the locker's hook dig into her back through her clothes.

"I feel like you're lying." The one in red closed her face with a frightening glare at Yang.

"You wouldn't be like lying to us, would you?" The other girl closed in the gap, until her whisper can be heard.

"Listen here and listen well Blondie…" Yang started into both of their eyes as they spoke in unison. "We don't care what's going on with your life now, but this more important. Anything else in your life is less priority than this. Get this shit done before the class starts or else."

The one in white grabbed a hand full of her hair and yanked it.

Yang yelped from the pain. She balled her hand into a fist as tight as she can. This was going too far and Yang was at the borderline of complete rage. She had closed her eyes to look like she was in major pain, but it was all to hide her eyes that shot up to red.

They were messing with her hair. It took a considerable amount of will power to keep herself from blowing up like how she would in her dreams. She had to follow what Jaune said.

"Do we make ourselves clear girl?" Yang managed a weak answer under her breath. Both of the girls let her go.

Before they left, the one in red pulled her hat down two her face and the one in white shoved her really hard, causing her to slid and hit the floor. Yang sat still with her face cover by her hat.

Her heart was racing in her chest, its sound beating heavily from within.

Her hand bleeding from her nails digging through her skin.

She remembered along school how often the twins picked on her for a lot of things.

Vaguely she recalled a moment in her nightmares about meeting these two somewhere.

_Melanie who is this girl?_

_I don't know Miltia, but I think we should teach her a lesson…_

She felt this exchange was quite the opposite of what happened in her dreams.

Was something like this what Jaune felt when he realized?

Being alone, frightened by the monsters around you?

"YANG!"

Yang moved her head and lifted up her beanie. She saw Jaune running from the corner of the hallway and knelt to her.

"What happened?"

"Nothing I can't handle, just some bullies." Jaune held her hands and pulled her up. Yang brushed her hands on her black jeans. Suddenly he noticed the red marks smeared into his own hands.

"Your hands are bleeding! Did…did you get into…"

"No. I almost did, but I kept my word not to cause unwanted attention." Yang let her hand slid to her side and look down.

"Are you okay?" Jaune looked at her, worried look on his face. Yang stared at him, trying to keep her emotions in check.

"Not really." Yang weakly muttered her words. She slowly grabbed his cloths and pressed her face against it.

Jaune held her in his arms. Yang didn't want to admit she was scared. It wasn't like Yang to admit something unless it was really something that she had to say. They both knew she was. Just not to say out loud.

A silent pause drifted from the two until Yang let go and looked at him.

"I thought you said you needed to get changed?"

"I did."

"That's the same black hoodie."

"Nnno. It isn't."

"Yyyess it is. Don't tell me you only have those in your closet." Jaune looked at her in silence. "Really?"

"Don't judge me. It's comfortable." Yang rolled her eyes and turned around to grab a set of notebooks.

"You need to find more clothes that aren't just that type of hoodies." Yang turned around to face Jaune, who was giving her a perplexed look. "What?"

"What's that on your head?"

"A beanie."

"For?"

"The hair."

"Why is it…"

"A bear?"

"Yes."

"Its cute."

"A black bear beanie?"

"What?" Jaune continued to look at her.

"Just… weird. You know I fought one of those don't you?"

"Yup."

"Let's just go." Yang closed the door of her locker. She noticed Jaune still staring at her head. In Jaune's head, he feels Yang could bounce back from anything. Yang was a strong girl. At least that's what Jaune saw in his dreams. It's all because of Yang's semblance.

But right now, Yang has no clue about semblance and aura. There will be time for learning. Jaune still doesn't have a firm grasp of aura.

Partial shield, detection, and accelerated healing…

That's all he has.

Getting Yang to his side was a good start.

* * *

Yang had the chance to see Ruby during first period, she made a big deal about yang's hat, telling her how cute it was and what didn't she have one. She got the chance to see how Ruby looked like with her enlightened self.

She wore a similar dress like Weiss, but with sleeves and it was black. It combined with her black boots. Jaune couldn't hear the siblings from the back. He wondered what they were talking about. Losing track of the people who have aura is a bad idea. He wanted to keep tabs on them.

He saw Weiss taking out her notes. Blake slid her book into her desk and did the same. Nora was still in today. Getting Nora to his side will be tricky and challenging. Jaune hopped not to get clobbered by the girl once he started spouting nonsense.

Ren wouldn't give him a chance. He has to figure out how to break it to these people. Yang's was felt like a stroke of luck. He needed to figure out their personalities better in this world.

Jaune stopped.

He felt like a stalker, but there was no way around it. They are the only one that can be like him and Yang. He wonders what would happen when he got them all on his side.

What would happen?

He turned to look at the moon outside. It didn't matter what time of day it was, but the moon seemed to be up there all the time. Jaune watches the visible cracks. There aren't a lot of them, but getting Yang definitely did something. If he got everyone, what would come about? He'll have to deal with it when the time comes. The other problem they were going to face is the world. Jaune knew without a doubt that this world is keeping them from the world he sees in his dream. His dreams feel more real than the one he is in.

"Jaune?" Jaune turned to look a Pyrrha. He whipped around so fast it started the girl.

"Sorry! What is it?"

"We're you home yesterday?" Jaune looked at her. A thought crept up to Jaune. Pyrrha had been in his case for a while. It didn't feel like a bad thing, but ever since he 'woke up,' Pyrrha, a very popular girl, started noticing him. He wanted to stray the normal answer to know what she wanted.

"Why you ask?" Jaune made it as innocent and positive as possible. He didn't want to come off as a jerk.

"I came by yesterday to give you some papers for tests. I forgot to give them to you when we talked."

"Oh, was with someone. We were working on some assignments."

"Who?" Jaune had to think of something. Simultaneously thought about why Pyrrha would ask him these questions. Why does she want to know?

More importantly, why did Jaune feel like keeping secrets from her?

"Oh you know some friend of mine. He wanted to study together. Tests are coming up!" Jaune tried to sound as believable as possible, along with a goofy mile on his face. He didn't know why, but Jaune felt the need to lie to her.

Pyrrha looked at him. Jaune felt her neutral stare digging into his soul. She was trying to read him. That blank look on her face started to freak him out.

It almost feels like…

The looks he gets from the 'people' around him.

"Alright. But…" Pyrrha reached out her hand and set it on his shoulder.

_Jaune you know if you ever need any help you can just ask…_

Jaune looked at the girl's face; she had a beautiful smile and gave the assurance that she was there to help.

"I will. Thanks Pyrrha." She nodded and retracted her. Class was about the start and everyone started preparing for the lecture.

Unknown to Pyrrha, Jaune kept looking at her. Something was really wrong with Pyrrha.

The moment she turned to face forward, the look on her face went from the gentle girl, to a cold-hearted blank stare.

Jaune could see that she had her head turned and eyes shifted.

She was looking at someone.

But who?

Jaune tried his best to follow the path of her vision, judging who she was staring coldly at.

It became difficult to narrow the possible people, but her perception switched to where Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang were sitting.

Pyrrha's case had gotten more mysterious.

* * *

A few classes passed and lunch time came.

Yang and Jaune rushed with Ruby to get their food and a place to sit. Preferably somewhere without anyone close around.

Jaune wanted to talk to Yang about the plan further. It was also a good thing Ruby was with them. Maybe they could ease her into their side and 'wake her up.'

Before Ruby could sit down, a voice called from a far.

"Oh hey guys!" Ruby jumped for joy. Jaune and Yang looked towards the girl to figure out what was up.

Jaune's eyes widened. It looked like he saw a ghost. There was a woman with black hair walking up to them, followed by two others. It was dark-skinned girl with short hair and two long strands behind her. A tall boy with boots seemed to echo like a marching band.

Jaune recognizes these people, especially the boy.

He recalls a moment in his dreams of battles. Jaune had recognized almost everyone in the school who appears in his dreams and knew who had aura. These three didn't.

He felt fortunate, but one thing for sure, they're entire group screamed evil.

He turned to Yang to see how shocked she was. There was a fearful look on her face and along with it, a reservoir of anger.

"Sis, these were the people I was talking about. I hung out with them last night."

Yang shook, trying to keeping her anger in check. Unlike Jaune, Yang couldn't recognize anyone from her dreams in this world except the boy. All she felt was nostalgia.

Right now, the three figures stood along Ruby.

The woman next to her…

She recognized in a heartbeat.

Memories flashed in her head about this woman. She had recalled great fires.

She suddenly recalled the pain in her hands from looking at this woman.

The scars from the fire she incurred.

She recalled this woman almost taking someone precious to her, but for the life of her, she could not figure out whom.

She remembered this woman's name.

"Yang let me introduce you our seniors. This is Cinder Nigri, Mercury Castillo, and Emerald Newville."

Jaune played off a wave. Yang kept still and frozen.

"Is that your sister?" Ruby nodded. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing." Yang shook her head and outstretched her hand. "I'm Yang. Yang Xia- Dunkelman."

"It's very nice to meet you." There was so much mischievousness coming from the woman's smile as she shook her hand.

"Nice! Well sis, I'm going to go eat with them ok?" Ruby turned and followed the three.

"Wait! -" Yang reached for Ruby and turned her around.

"Huh?" Yang was about to say something until she noticed everyone in the room became silent. Everyone's gaze focused on her. "What is it Yang?"

"I-" Before she could talk any further, she felt a grip on her other hand. She turned her head and saw Jaune up reached out for her.

"Let it go Yang." He whispered softly. She turned back to Ruby and the stares of everyone. She gulped and let her hand fall to her side.

"It's nothing. Go ahead." The lunchroom went in motion again. Ruby carried her tray happily with the three. She watched as the woman named Cinder put her hand around the girl. She gave them smile, her eye gleaming red.

Yang balled her fist tightly.

"Yang. Those things aren't one of us."

"Is she?"

"No, Ruby is. Don't worry right now. As long as Ruby doesn't know anything, she'll be safe."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I'm not, but we won't be able to handle the alternative. Come on, let's get out of here and eat somewhere else." Jaune picked up his tray. "Yang, come on." Yang angrily turned and picked up her tray.

"Lead the way."

* * *

Yang and Jaune went up to the roof and eat. Fascinatingly enough the roof was unoccupied. Jaune made a note how this spot seemed like a good place to meet for lunch and other things. Yang and Jaune sat next to each other, much to Jaune's perplexed feeling of Yang, sitting very close to him, he didn't mind.

It was open, the moon was visible and there was only one way in.

"Are you alright Yang?"

"Don't worry about me. You wanted to talk about something." Jaune could feel the anger compressed within Yang.

"Alright. Yes, I wanted to run by you what I plan on doing."

"Lay it on me." Yang bit on her meat bun as she spoke.

"A moment ago gave me proof that whatever is doing this to us is protecting Ruby. I don't know why, but I don't think we're going to be able to convince Ruby any time soon. I'm sorry Yang."

"We'll figure something out." Yang didn't like it, but she had to accept it. They needed more preparation and planning to do all of this.

"Alright, now our first priority is to lay low. Don't attract any attention from those monsters. Along this is convincing others." Jaune took a sip of his milk from the carton. "In order to do that, we have to observe their personalities. The people we think we know from our dreams aren't the same as the people here, but there may be some similarities."

"Hold it right there." Yang held her hand up and turned to Jaune. "I don't know why, but the only people I recognize in my dreams are you and that woman."

"You don't recognize anyone else?"

"They're all blurry in the dreams, but I feel nostalgic when I look at some people."

"Like who?"

"Weiss and Blake? I hear some echoes from Weiss and Blake's hair seemed too odd for me."

"Yeah. It really is. Those two have aura, and they're your team mates. At least I think they are. I only recognize their faces in my dreams and some of their personalities, echoes of their voices. Other than that, I have nothing."

"So Ruby, Blake, and Weiss are like us?"

"Yeah. Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha too."

"Huh, Eight of us."

"Yeah."

"What about that brown-haired girl?"

"The one who bumped into Cardin?"

"Yep."

"It feels like she's one of us. Cardin is one of  _them_. Weirdly enough, that girl reminds me of a bunny girl in my dreams."

"Wait Bunny girl? Don't tell me you're dreaming of porn."

"No! I remember recalling in my dream of people who have animal ears."

"That just sounds weird."

"As weird as it sounds it's true. Anyways, we'll have to try to keep tabs on the 6 others. We gotta know more about them so we can get closer. Then we'll reel them in to wake them up."

"You sound like a rapist." Yang muttered under her breath as she sipped her juice.

"I don't want to hear that from you."

"Kidding. I get ya. What happens when we get everyone?"

"That's as far as I can foresee. Almost forgot, you need to know more about aura control. This place should be a good spot to train. Let's meet here after school."

"We're not going to get locked in here are we?"

"No, but if we didn't, we can just jump off the roof." Jaune stood up and leaned on the rail.

"That's a long big drop." Yang got up and looks over the rail. They could both see a lot of the students in the field having lunch and doing some running at the track.

"I can make that jump and don't worry, I'll catch you." Jaune held his chin high and boasted.

"Can you really?" Yang doubted the boy.

"I don't really know. You look pretty heavy. OW! I'm kidding!" Yang jabbed him in the rib.

"Very funny, Vomit boy. I'm not heavy. These curves are light and soft."

"Yes, yes, we all know how soft you are Yang." Jaune scoffed.

"Do you?"

"Huh? What?"

"Jaune that remark just now, are you not telling me something, I don't know yet?" yang stepped closer to him.

"What are you talking about?" Jaune tried backing off from the girl.

"Hmm?"

"You'll know eventually." Jaune laughed nervously and gouged his food in his mouth. Yang leaned on the rails once more and pouted.

Jaune recalled knowing Yang's softness from one of the memoires he had in his dream where he won his first battle against Cardin. Yang had pulled Jaune into a noogie, with her breast firmly pressed against the back of his head.

That nostalgic feeling gave Jaune a slight blush as he finished his drink.

"You're blushin, now you gotta tell me what it was!" Yang pointed and rushed towards him.

"No! You have to figure it out yourself!" Jaune got off the rail and started evading the blonde girl.

* * *

There were some classes Jaune wasn't with Yang so she had to keep control of herself and act natural around these thing. It was nearly the end of the day for school, and yang had to sit through more lectures. Luckily in this class, she was seated at the back. She held her head with her hand on her desk. The more the instructor talks, the sleepier she got. She tried to keep awake but for some reason she was feeling drowsy.

This was probably the sleep that was catching up to her from last night. She felt herself falling asleep. She tried to keep herself awake as hard as she could. From time to time, she experienced some hipnic jerk, as she fell into those micro-sleeps.

As hard as she could, the sleep took over. Yang had been afraid of this darkness. She had been more afraid than before Jaune woke her up. Back then she knew nothing was in the darkness. Now, she was made aware that there are things lurking in them, waiting for the right time to strike.

_Black fur…_

Not this again…

_Long black fur…_

This...this isn't fur…

_A black bow…_

I know this don't I?

_Long black strand twirling around, gunfire…_

I feel so heavy...

_YANG!_

Who's calling my name…?

_BUMBLEBEE!_

What?

_AAAAUGHHAAA!_

Yang recognized her voice screaming. She had felt herself being spun around until she saw her fist collide against a metal object. It collapsed into many pieces when it flew away from her.

Yang looked at her hands and saw the yellow metal wrapped around them. She looked up and saw three figures coming to her side.

Red...

White…

Black…

…

…

Yellow…

Yang woke up suddenly from her sleep. She looked around, surprised. She then noticed a figure right in front of her.

"Are you okay? You fell asleep and it's time to go." It was a girl with short black hair.

The one with the bow…

"Blake?"

"Yes?" She had a worried look on her face.

"I- thanks for letting me know." Yang couldn't find any more words. She got her things and left to her locker, leaving a confused girl behind.

* * *

Jaune waited at the rooftops for Yang. He leaned over the rails and watched the moon above and the 'people' below.

'One of these days, we'll figure out what's going on in this world.'

The plan was very crucial. They both have to know the others and convince them one by one as fast as possible. 'The more people wake up, the more we're noticed.' He also had to figure out the deal with Pyrrha. He held his chest; his heart pounding. He feels something about Pyrrha. There was something between them that spurred more than what they already have; more than being acquaintances.

More than friends…

But Jaune couldn't point his finger to what it was.

"There so much questions." He let his head fall down onto his arms.

"JAUNE!" He looked up and turned around to see Yang coming out of the door.

"Hey." He saw the girl carry a large bag with her. Oddly enough she had a skirt on. Yang interrupted him before he could ask. Somewhere along the way, her beanie wasn't in her head anymore. The flick of hair standing up on her head showed Yang as who she was.

"Alright so we're going to practice some aura right?" yang closed the door tightly behind her.

"Yep!" Jaune was confused about the girl's large ecstatic behavior.

"Good! I took these babies from the gym." She dug inside the bag and brought out some boxing gloves.

"Why'd you brought boxing gloves? More importantly, why do we have boxing gloves?"

"I dunno. I saw'em and figured it should be useful."

"You know we'll be practicing aura usage not combat right?"

"What? Aren't they the same thing?"

"I don't think so."

"Aw come on. I brought the gloves with me!" Jaune thought for a moment about the situation.

'Yang's always been a hands-on kind of person. Maybe it would be a better idea to have her practice combat and maybe she can use aura naturally like that.'

"So?"

"Alright. We'll use the gloves."

"Yay!" Yang jumped for joy. Jaune went to the bag and found some boxing pads.

"Are you sure you're comfortable fighting in that?" Jaune pointed at her skirt.

"I didn't have gym clothes and I remember putting this on my gym locker. I need free leg movement. Don't worry I'm wearing my night shorts under."

"Oh." Jaune suddenly realized the tone of his voice when he uttered those words out.

"That sounded like disappointment…"

"No, No! I meant 'oh' as in 'Ooh.' It didn't mean what you thought."

"Yeah uhuh, sure. Keep telling yourself that, perv."

"Yang… Whoa!" Yang threw a punch at Jaune's face without warning.

"Pay attention! We're already starting!" She took more jabs at the boy.

"Hey! Wait! Let me get the pads on first!" Jaune back pedaled as he tried to slip on the boxing pads on his hands.

"Well better hurry up, before I pummel ya! You want me to wear that beanie? I'll pretend like I'm the big bear you speak of!"

"Not funny!" Her punches were sloppy at first, but after Jaune got the pads on his hand, her form got better. They stayed stationary as Jaune directed the pads to where Yang would later punch.

Punch after punch, Jaune could feel more force into them.

'Maybe it's working.'

"Feel anything?"

"Yeah. I don't know what I feel something weird inside me." Yang felt energy flowing into her body for every punch she threw.

"Alright, you're becoming aware of the aura inside you. It's all mental Yang. Think of the energy from your body flowing into your arms. It's also fueled by emotion."

'Emotion huh?'

Yang thought of something in her head that could help her in this training. She felt her body growing heavier and heavier. Yet something inside her was fueling her, keeping her from getting tired. If it was emotion that can also fuel her, then she needed a source, a point of interest that would spur something within her.

She thought of her sister Ruby and how she was walking away with Cinder and the others, anger slowly rising. She recalled her dream about something precious she was losing and how the sadness she felt instead became rage as she thought of the uselessness of herself if she couldn't figure this aura out.

She could feel her hair curling. Jaune noticed her eyes pulsing red as she continued to speed up the punches. He kept the mats in front of him. Yang is now assaulting Jaune with a flurry of punches.

The vision played back…

Ruby walking away…

Cinder smiling at her…

"YYYAAAAGGHH!" Yang had reeled her arm back to punch the pad in front of her all of her might and rage.

Jaune saw a ball of fire coming right for him. He immediately ducked and felt the shock wave of an explosion above him.

The explosion lit up the roof against the afternoon sky.

There was a silence between the two as they say smoke coming out from Yang's boxing glove, which was destroyed.

"Holy shit…"

"That's my line! That could seriously have hurt me."

"Hehehe, oh don't be a big baby, you could have handled it. You did once, remember?"

"Yeah, but that was for you. I'm not going to be your punching bag. I don't want to be blown up."

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry bout that." Yang pulled the gloves of and held out her hand for Jaune to grab. Jaune took her hand and he could still feel the heat from her hand from that explosive punch.

"Well at least you found a way to use your aura for offensive measures. We'll move on to defensive."

"Don't worry about that Jaune. If I can pull this off, I won't need that."

"Yang be serious, you'll need to know this."

"Maybe another time. I'm pooped." Yang let herself fall backwards as she felt the energy from that punch took a lot out of her.

Fine. Anyways, that was quite a punch. It looked much bigger and scarier than last time. Wonder what was in your head when you did that."

"Your face."

"Hah hah! Very funny Yang." Jaune admitted that letting Yang go herself was faster than step by step. This was Yang.

"Hey Jaune."

"Yeah?"

"Mind coming over again?" Jaune would have taken those words with a blush, but the tone yang's voice made it different. He could feel the fear in her. Jaune guessed that it was about sleeping. Yang didn't want to be alone in her house when she slept. She didn't want to be alone if she were to have a nightmare again.

"Sure."

"Don't get any funny ideas mister. You're going back to the couch."

"Yes dear. Wouldn't dream of it." He held out his hand for her, which she graciously took. Jaune almost fell when yang tugged a little too hard on his hand. "We should head back now and get something to eat."

"What should we do about the gloves?" Jaune looked at Yang who had a torn glove on one hand and a charred one on the other.

"I don't know. You're responsible for them!"

"I'm just gonna throw them over there and forget about it."

'Classic Yang.'

He helped Yang pack up the bag and headed to the door.

'I think we should start with Blake tomorrow. Maybe not. I should. It's going to be awkward. Maybe I can talk to her about something too.' Jaune grabbed the door and accidentally pushed it.

Jaune stopped for a moment to notice that the door wasn't closed all the way.

"Yang did you close the door properly?"

"Yeah. What you don't know how to use a door? Grab knob, turn, and push."

"Yeah I know that, but it just opened when I pushed it." It occurred to Jaune that someone may have watched them during their practice. He didn't feel anything or anyone within the vicinity when Yang arrived.

'What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Jaune made sure to have practiced on detection more so than defense. He needed to be aware of his surroundings better.

This wasn't the first time. Others were just a small glimpse. Someone is watching him.

He cautiously opened the door further. As he reached the edge of the stairs he quickly noticed the rails on the stairs distorted into a weird fashion.

"What hell?" Words came from Yang's mouth as she witness the odd distortion of the metal rails bent in odd angles. "I'm not sure, but was the rail like that before we got up here?"

"No."

_To be continued..._


	6. Lurkers in the Dark

Blake was their target.

Gather information about her.

Get enough to be able to bring her to their side.

There was one problem.

-Adam Hunter-

Almost anywhere they found Blake, Adam was there by her side. The only times the Adam wasn't around was during classes with Blake and lunchtime.

"I think the best time to talk to Blake is before and after classes." Yang munched on the sandwich she had in her hand. She was lying down on the floor on the roof of the school, looking up at the moon.

"Yeah. that guy doesn't look like he meets her after classes." Jaune leaned on the rusty rails and looked overthe things out in the field, sipping his juice box.

It had been a few days since they Yang found out she can cause explosions with her fists. SHe was still having troubles getting them to work all the time. Plus these training sessions seemed to drain Yang. She tries not to show that she is, but gave up when she realized how observant Jaune was. Since Yang was aware of her aura flow, Jaune started teaching her how to detect others by using aura. He made the same analogy as the instructor when it comes to detecting.

Their method of detection so far was of echoes. Jaune hasn't reached being able to make the detection constant. He had to manually create an echo to detect others.

"Hey Jaune."

"Yeah?"

"This detection thing. How would you know if one of them is close by? From what you've teaching me, this echo only detects people with aura."

"I noticed that the first time. But the more you get used to it, the more sensitive it becomes and you'll be able to make them out. Usually I could feel them when they start staring at me."

"You know what? I could feel those stares too. Well, sometimes." Yang rose up and joined Jaune by the rails.

"How are things going with you?"'

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't see you all the time."

"Ah, it's okay. To an extent. I rarely get to see Ruby. She comes home sometimes, but she's with, you know."

"I see. What about that other things?"

"What other things?" Jaune stared at Yang as he continued to sip on his empty juice box, intimidating her with the bubbly noise. "What?"

"Yang, something's up. I didn't get to see you for a few days. And when I did get to see you, I saw a bruise on your arm." A few days ago, Yang had asked Jaune not to come over for a few days. She had forgotten to give the twins what they want and she ended up getting beaten in the girls bathroom. She tried with all of her might to endure it. That pure focus left her without any aura to keep her from getting hurt too much. She didn't want to appear Jaune beaten. Yang was fortunate that Jaune only saw one bruise, where in fact she had several.

"I must have hit something. Can't tell my own strength you know."

"Yang." Jaune stopped sipping the juice box and tossed it at a nearby garbage can.

"It's nothing."

"It's those twins isn't it."

"..." Yang looked away. trying to avert his gaze.

"Listen, I'm grateful to you for not causing any unwanted attention, but I'm also worried how they're treating you. Why did they do that to you? Can't you avoid them?"

"That's very kind of you Jaune, but I have to deal with this myself. There's no use avoiding. They'll eventually find me."

"Alright. How were the nights?" Yang nearly regretted keeping Jaune from coming to her house as those nights had been all nightmares. Nightmares that woke her up with such a fright that she failed to sleep for the rest of the night.

She remembers machines and monsters, all trying to make their way to kill her. She dreamt of herself with different clothes riding a bike at night, evading vehicles that fell from the sky. And all those people except Jaune she couldn't recognize. She remembered Cinder and the burn marks on her arms.

Scars that she got from both Cinder.

And herself.

"Why ask when you know the answer?" Jaune felt like he needed to even though he could see the lack of sleep under her eyes and how short she lasted during the aura training.

"So, do you want me come over?" Jaune played it cooly and slide the thought. He look into the corner of his eyes and saw Yang looking at him with a smirk.

"Are you trying to to invite you're self to my house Vomit boy?"

"Don't make it sound like that. I don't want you feeling tired all the time. And... I don't want you suffering from those nightmares you've been having." Jaune sat down facing the rails.

"Yeah, Yeah. But, you're still getting the couch."

"I'm good with that. That thing started to grow on me. Very comfortable. Especially a few days ago." Jaune looked at her with smile. Yang looked away, but Jaune could see the slight blush on her cheeks.

"I was probably sleep walking." Yang pushed off the rails and paced around.

"And somehow you navigated to the couch" Yang sat away from Jaune and leaned back on him.

"I can't control myself if I sleep walk."

"You don't sleep walk Yang. At least from what I remember in my dreams." Jaune rested his temple in between the bars of the rail. Yang continued to stare at the moon. Surreal as it is, seeing the moon like that felt more normal than seeing one intact.

_'Best sleep I had in a while.'_ Yang whispered.

* * *

The next day came with a slight awkwardness with Yang an Jaune.

"Yang I don't want to sound like I want to get in with you, but I think it'd be easier if I was you know, much closer from your room." He can't help but blush. The first part was somewhat of lie. Jaune knew how beautiful Yang was and he can't really help it as a guy to see her as an attractive woman.

"You're not getting in my bed. It's... embarassing..." She tried hiding her red face from Jaune with her hat and held her bag close to her chest. Jaune woke up this morning with his face full of Yang pillows. His sudden jolt woke Yang and made her jump off realized what was going on. Yang's hand had shot up to Jaune by accident.

"I'm okay if you want me to sleep on the floor." Jaune can't help but speak up. His blush grew more and more as the thought slid into his mind.

"Zip it Jaune. You're making me feel more embarrassed." Yang shot at him, show how red her face was. Jaune had no choice by to shut up. Side by side, they continued to walk to school. They made a detour from the crowded sidewalk to somewhere more serene.

The silence between the two had become a lot more awkward. Jaune wanted to ask her something, but felt that he would only further embarrass Yang. Yang hugged her bag and looked down on the floor as she walked.

"I don't know why, but your aura. Its feels... nice. So warm, and... Familiar. I guess I can't help it. I feel like a moth to the flame."

"Thanks." They looked eyes for a bit, and shared a smiled together.

Nearing the school, they were going to initiate the plan observing Blake further and see what they can get.

"They were pretty soft."

Jaune found himself pushed off his feet and onto the grass a few yards away.

* * *

"Good Morning Jaune. How are you?"

"Good Morning, Pyrrha. I'm alright. You?"

"Same." Pyrrha looked at Jaune before she sat down. "What's wrong with you're cheek?"

"What?"

"One of your cheeks are red." She pointed at her right cheek.

"Oh this? It's nothing, probably just leaned on my hand for too long or something."

"Uh huh." Jaune could see the skeptical look on her face as she stared at him.

"No worries Pyrrha."

Nora wasn't here today. Either ditching today or just not coming at all. Blake appeared just as the last bell rang for first period. Yang didn't get much chat with Blake as class was about to start. Weiss soon followed.

Jaune felt a little bit curious to see Weiss come to class just as the last bell rang. She was usually at her seat before anyone else. it had been a few moments and no one came through the door. The students around looked at each other in confusion, wondering where the instructor was. Yang had turned to look at Jaune who caught her glance. Jaune shook his shoulders to gesture that he doesn't know what's up.

He tilted his head, signalling Yang to take a chance with Blake. Yang turned further to face her.

"Hey Blake."

"Hi Yang." Blake sounded pretty surprised. Most likely she was a bit confused as to how Yang had suddenly started talking to her out of nowhere. Blake was pretty stoic and distant. Jaune felt her personality was a bit nostalgic. Some of the ones he knows had somewhat of a different personality, but Blake takes the cake.

Just as Yang was about to speak, she could hear whistling from down the hall. Jaune had caught it too.

It took a few notes till it became clear what the tune was.

Jaune quickly looked at Yang and knew that she had recognized the tune.

A tune that they both remembered in their dreams. The very sound that pulled so many horrible memories.

-I'm singing in the rain-

Yang turned her head quickly to look at the door opening and found a man waltzing in. Pyrrha looked at Jaune and noticed a grim expression of disbelief at the man at the front of class She wondered why he made such a face.

The expression Jaune made was similar to that of what Yang had. She looked at the man in front of her.

He set down the folder down and leaned on the podium. One can feel the sarcasm in his tone as he spoke.

"Well class it seems that your instructor wasn't able to make it today, so all of you are stuck with me." He turned around and took a chalk from the board and started writing his name.

-Roman Haddock-

Roman.

Yang knew for a fact she recognized that name along with his out look. specifically that black bowler hat. His mocking tone, brown short hair that could pass as red.

Yang had recalled moments from her nightmares of this man. She could never forget that taunting voice and attitude. There was that time with giant robot wreckage he came out of from.

there were also time, where he had lost that mocking tone. Replaced it with anger and fury. A much different man that what she was seeing. A vengeful being. Yang had no idea what had happen to turn him into that, but in any case, he was one of her enemies.

one of the people involved into nearly bringing down entire nations.

The question now is why is he here?

Yang thought it had to be a trick. A trap by this mysterious world.

"What's wrong blondie? You look like you've seen a ghost?" Her thoughts shattered as she suddenly realized her situation. She had an unusual look on her face when she saw him and it prompted the man to question her facial expression. Yang sat up straight quickly and shook her head nervously.

Roman looked her with arched brow before finally turning around back to the podium.

"Now children, just because I'm a substitute teacher, doesn't mean we're not going over class lecture. Your instructor handed me something stuff and now we're going over everything."

Nearly everyone in the class groaned. Except for Yang and Jaune. They were more alert about about Roman than anything else.

They kept watch of this man, while they pretend to listen in on his lecture and the work assign.

Jaune tried his best to feel any aura from him, but to no avail. He was like the rest of the people around him. Watching him closely, he suddenly realized that Roman had been giving some mischievous smile and it looked like he was giving that expression to someone. He scanned the room and followed where his line of sight.

Whoever he was giving that smile, it was around where Yang sat. He was was like everyone else, but Jaune's paranoia kept him from concentrating. He continued to observe inconspicuously as much as he can on who in the crowd would react out of place from Roman.

His observation was cut short when he saw Pyrrha from the corner of his eye. She was reading the work that was assigned but what set of Jaune's curiosity off was her glasses. Interesting red framed glasses.

Jaune has never seen her wear them before. This seemed like a new look for her.

Pyrrha had suddenly looked up, feeling Jaune's concentrated stare. She turned and whispered to him.

'What's the matter Jaune?' Jaune pointed his hand to his face, gesturing his curiosity of her spectacles. _'Oh, these? I don't usually wear them. My eyes usually get tired after reading for a while. I wear them now so it doesn't happen later.'_

"It looks nice." Jaune gave a smile which prompted Pyrrha to smile as well along with a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Are you done lover boy?" Jaune jolted, missing the chance to realize that Roman was leaning by his desk. "You must be doing something very important because I don't see any work being done on you're desk. Where is you're book?"

Before Jaune could respond. Before Jaune could even think of a response, Pyrrha spoke up.

"Actually sir, Jaune was asking if I could share the book with him because he forgot to bring it."

"Is that true?"

"Y-yeah, I was in such a rush this morning, I forgot it at my locker."

"Right. I should tell you not to forget it, but I don't really care. Do what you want." He turned around and went back to whatever he was doing by the podium.

'Thanks Pyrrha.' She smiled in return and gesturing her hand on her book. Jaune had to ride on Pyrrha's lie and shared a book with him. Jaune missed Pyrrha's brighten smile when he looked at Yang on the other side giving him a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

The class went on like this for a while.

getting to talk to Blake at this period was a bust.

The next chance they'll get is during at lunch period.

* * *

Jaune and Yang met up after class and briefly discussed what the plan was. They would have to wait until lunch period. His next class was different than Yang and Blake's. After the immediate exchange, they parted. Jaune walked along the busy halls, trying to avoid any eye contact from these things.

Through his journey to his class, he thought back on Blake's case and what his relationship with her. These memories from this world vaguely explains anything other that, there was something between them. What ever that something was, it clearly showed distance between them.

He has to remember what it was. Maybe then he can figure out how to get her to their side.

Suddenly, Jaune felt a slight tingle by his neck. His detection was acting up. He recognized this faint aura close by. Wavering quite a bit enough to get Jaune's attention. It didn't take long for Jaune, since it was right where his next class was. He slowed his walk to a stop right by a stairway. He nonchalantly leaned against a post and noticed two people at the far end of the stairway, away from others.

_'Nora?'_  Jaune tried to watch her at the corner of his eye. A taller guy was with her and had his hand right on the wall above her. She was leaning with a her back at the wall.

It looked like they were talking, but Jaune wasn't able to make a peep from them because of the crowded hallway. He was able to make out Nora's expression clearly though. He remembered that look. It was the same one she gave him when he accidentally bumped into her the day before he woke up.

That fury on her face.

Jaune managed to recognize the boy looking down on her. It was the same guy that Ruby introduced to him and Yang.

-Mercury Castillo-

_'What the hell is he doing with Nora?'_  Mercury had a smirk on his face the entire time. Whatever he was saying to her, Nora wasn't pleased. Nora shoved him to the other wall. He kept his smirk and look like he told her something that made her stop.

He laughed a bit and left her. Jaune turned away, letting him pass without noticing him. When he was gone, he turned back to Nora who looked like she was about to explode.

"Nora?" The angry look on her face disappeared when she heard him. Nora didn't respond, instead she made her way passed him. Jaune caught her arm, which made him rethink of his decision to even touch Nora.

Though she didn't react like he though she would. Jaune could feel the lightness of her arm as he held it. He softly let it go of her arm, letting it fall to her side, lifelessly.

"I'm sorry." Jaune scratched his head. He didn't know how much that would do to get him out of Nora's fury.

"It's okay." Jaune's eyes blinked rapidly as he looked at the tiny girl in front of him. This didn't feel right, but before Jaune could think anymore about it, he decided to speak up.

"Are you alright?" Jaune thought about how he might be pushing his luck, but all he got was a short response.

"It's nothing... J-Jaune.." She voiced her words with such annoyance, but also with some awkwardness. She also showed some confusion right before leaving. Jaune was left in silence.

There was no way Jaune was letting that get by him. Jaune was astounded to know that Nora knew his name, but did she? She sounded confused when she said his name. In this world, it didn't really occur to Jaune that Nora even cared about knowing anyone other than Ren.

Ren.

Jaune almost forgot that Ren. Jaune thought through his memories, dreams, and the people he knows. He thought back to Yang's case.

From what Yang was experiencing, why was she only able to recognize their adversaries from the other world? She recognized Jaune because part of his aura managed to clear up that part of her memories.

For Jaune, all he has are echoes and the perspective of knowing that those who have aura were the same as him. Besides the pieces of memories he has with Yang, he had no idea who anyone was. He has some violent memories of Roman and Cinder. He recollects his real name and that he was a warrior.

A Hunter.

Other than the fact that he knows that the people around him who has aura, should not be acting as they are now. Yang used to be so meek and defenseless until recently.

There was also the matter of the dreams he was having of those black monsters and the broken message he was hearing. He couldn't recognize the voice, but it felt nostalgic. He could hardly figure out the message he was hearing, so that was out until he gets the dreams again. The there was the visions he had of Ruby when introduced she introduced CInder and the other two.

Ruby was so scared and bloodied.

_JAUNE HELP ME!_

_'What could that mean?'_  Jaune thought to himself as he took a seat by his desk. If he remembered correctly Ruby was wearing a red jacket.

He asked himself what good would knowing what she wore in that vision. He had no other knowledge of what she wore. She may have aura, which could probably mean she also belong to world in his dreams like Yang.

He had no idea what his relationship with Ruby was. Hell, Jaune had more nostalgic memories of Blake and Weiss.

All he knew as of now was that there were eight of them.

_'Eight...Me, Yang, Blake, Ruby, Nora, Ren, Weiss, and Pyrrha...'_  Jaune thought about Pyrrha and circled around the event where he shared books with her. She smelled so nice. She was all nice to begin with.

An idea suddenly slipped into his head. He thought that maybe with how he and Pyrrha are going right now, it might be a good idea if he went to her route instead.

He then thought back to Yang and the process to get her through.

_'No...What happened with Yang was pure luck. I don't want to risk doing that again.'_  If Jaune was going to do it, he had to do it much better than how he handled Yang. The only way for Jaune to be able to do so is by getting information to bring them to light. The only way for Jaune to get said information is through his dreams.

Yet so far the only thing Jaune got from his dreams were monsters, vague occurrences of fighting adversaries, and Yang. As class was about to start, Jaune closed his eyes. There must be another way.

_'Wait...'_  Jaune came to an immediate revelation of knowing things was echoes. Jaune had experienced them several times. The first time was with Cardin at the lunchroom. Then there were times when he tried to figure out about his aura. That feminine voice.

A voice that felt so nostalgic, but he couldn't point his finger to who uttered them.

Either way, the echoes may lead to more information. Sadly, Jaune realized that the echoes he was looking for is very specific, and he doesn't know them ahead of time. He'll just have to pray he's lucky enough for somethings like that too happen.

His train of thought was broken when he suddenly heard a plop right beside him.

He looked and found Weiss setting her books down. The distressed look on her face makes it seemed like she was think about something and Jaune bets that it wasn't pleasant.

Jaune immediately sat up and realized that Weiss just sat by a desk right next to him.

_'Why is she sitting next to me? Has she ever sat next to me?'_  Jaune couldn't remember if Weiss had ever sat next to him. Nomatter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember. That in itself had Jaune thinking.

_'If this world is a dream, then the day before I woke up might have been the start of the dream. The memories I have... are just to fill in the gaps of before the dream.'_  This conclusion had Jaune a filled with confidence and knowledge. It might be farfetched, but it can be an explanation.

Going back to Weiss, who sat straight. She gave the feel of an elegant woman with royalty mannerism. He failed to realized hoe much he was observing her. He looked at her pale blonde hair and the low pony tail she had that dropped in front of her right shoulder. Dressed in full white with that short coat.

Beautiful white skin. A magnificent complexion that nearly represented something as white a snow...

"Snow angel..." Jaune didn't realize that he was nearly half asleep, his voice audible enough for someone next to him to hear.

"Stop calling me that!" Weiss with annoyance, said under her breath, which woke up Jaune. Not only did it woke him up, it caught his attention.

He looked at Weiss with such confusion and curiosity. There was only a few times he had talked with Weiss and most of those times was when they first met. What set of the curiosity was her response.

Weiss looked like she didn't even realize what she just said. She fidgeted around avoiding eye contact with Jaune.

"Weiss?" Jaune ad called her name quietly.

"What?" She shot back at it with anger, but that fury slowly died to nervous and frightened look.

"Sorry, It's nothing." Weiss gazed at the floor. She raised her hand to move her bangs out from her eyes. Jaune immediately stared. He couldn't help not look at her now. Something was missing about her face.

Her face, clean, but from the way a strand of her hair slid right beside her face pulled something from the depths of Jaune's mind. The way it floated in front of her left eye like a slim line that marked across her face...

Right on across her left eye.

Suddenly a vision filled Jaune's eyes and from there he saw a girl who looked a lot like Weiss.

White long hair, pulled back off-centered to a pony tail, and a white dress along with a red inner lined bolero jacket..

Crystal blue eyes...

And a scar.

What were the chances?

This was exactly what Jaune was looking for. He recognized this girl from his dreams. Part of the dreams he had of this white dressed girl finally cleared. He was able to see her face. He started to find out who she was.

Her name...

Jaune paused.

He forced himself to start thinking any further.

'Her name is for hers to remember. But this can change things. I only need time. That's it! All I have to do is see if I can remember something about them and from a reaction like that, something might surface! If I can do this for Blake, we can get her on our side.' Jaune breathed in relief. He had more now than he had before.

He looked outside and saw the moon in the sky. Jaune thought that if the Moon was the sign that this world is a dream, the cracks would mean that they are waking up soon. More cracks would mean more people waking up.

He looked straight forward as class was about to start. The silence of the room had finally gotten to him.

They were all looking back towards him.

Weiss's gaze was down on her desk so she didn't see it. Jaune tried to ignore the red eyed stares. He knew his actions were discreet, whispering and such.

How would they known?

Jaune tried to look up nonchalantly to see if they were still watching him.

They weren't.

But they were still looking back.

_'Who are they looking at...'_  Jaune mentally kicked himself in the shin. He had so much realizing going on at this point he had missed that the reason why they looked back wasn't him.

It was Weiss.

He glanced over to Weiss to see what she was doing. Her gaze was still on her desk, but the look on her face says she was thinking of something. She looked more confused and distressed. Whatever Weiss was thinking, it was attracting them.

_'These monsters...'_

He knows now.

He had an idea.

* * *

"Yang, these things! I know why they are always looking at us." He stared seriously into Yang's eyes. Much to the other blonde's confusion, Jaune had gained valuable information.

"What brought this on?" Yang said, slowly forking her food, trying to take in the seriousness behind Jaune's eyes.

"Just listen! I have a feeling I figured out something about them. The reason why we become watched from time to time is how we are feeling."

"Come again?"

"I was with Weiss in class. I said something that triggered a memory and it somehow got to her as well. Weiss looked much more distressed than we usually see her somehow made the class look back like how they look at us. Only this time, they were all looking at Weiss."

"Why exactly?"

"I think...Its emotion. Negative emotions to be exact. They seemed to be attracted to it. Sadness, distress, anger." Jaune looked around and observed the students around the room. Each one of them acting normally, interacting with one another. "I'm not all to sure about it, but I feel like I'm in the right track."

"Have you tried experimenting?"

"Not yet..." Jaune stared at his plate. Jaune circled around the idea that these things were attracted to negative emotions. He thought back to the experiences he had from before.

His first encounter with the monster, what did he feel?

'I was troubled.'

The cafeteria where he had used echo around the room. He found them all staring at him.

'I was calm during that time. Why were they looking at me?'

Jaune thoguht deeper and tried to remember the situation. Oddly enough, that specific memory was pretty clear, he could feel what he had felt back then. He tried to remember everything he felt that day and figure out why he was being stared at by them.

_'Maybe...'_  Jaune thought back to Weiss's case.  _'They weren't looking at me...'_  If that were true Jaune would have to conclude, that something was behind him. Bit by bit, he started to feel it. The energy, faint but very noticeable now. A thin blanket of energy right behind him. In his memory, he couldn't see what was behind him, and he wasn't able to look.

Whatever it was, Jaune suddenly recognized the blurred field hidden him. It was so familiar to him, but he wasn't able to pinpoint who.

It wasn't Yang.

This energy.

This aura.

He remembered being so close to it...

"Jaune?" Jaune looked up at Yang who had a worried look on her face. She commented on how frighten his face looked when he stared at his plate. He apologized and explained he was trying to piece his experiences together.

Overall, the feelings he had that attracted them was distress and paranoia.

He was sure that what he had felt at those times were those and it somehow attracted them.

_'That doesn't explain Yang's case.'_  He realized how careless he was when he woke Yang up that day. Surely the huge amount of emotions should have attracted things, but when they went outside, there wasn't any.

"So how are you going to try this theory of yours out?" Jaune looked at Yang then back to the things around them. He noticed Blake, Weiss, Ren, and Nora scattered around the sea of students. He turns to Yang, leaning closer to her over the table.

"Alright, Yang."

"?"

"Where is Ruby right now?" Yang had set her fork down. Jaune has her entire attention.

"I-I don't know."

"Why?"

"You told me she's okay just as long as she doesn't know anything."

"Aren't you worried?"

"Of course I am!" Yang could feel the red taking over her eyes.

"She's with that woman right now. Are you okay with that?"

"I'm not, but I don't have a choice!" Yang hadn't realized that Jaune was initiating the experiment, until she saw his eyes averted from her and staring seriously behind her. With a single blink, the redness on her iris, disappear. She slowly turned and witness the stillness of the entire room and the entire student body, staring at them.

Yang turned, meeting Jaune's gaze.

"I don't think the others even notice what going on when they start doing this. It's just us." Jaune whispered to her. Yang's anger subsided and with that, the stares lessen and it all went back to normal.

"What?" Jaune said, looking at Yang's disapproving look. "Sorry. First thing that came up in my head. OW!" Yang brought her foot right up to Jaune's shin from under the table. Jaune brought his leg up and rubbed his shin.

"Yang!"

"Sorry, first thing that came up in my head." Yang said as she chugged her milk carton. "Hey, didn't you say that girl was also one of us?"

"Who?"

"That brown haired girl, the one you said had bunny ears in your dream."

"Oh yeah, I haven't seen her in a while." Yang and Jaune turned their heads and looked around for the said girl. Yang thought back to what Jaune said. As much as she wanted to grab her sister, she couldn't. It was too risky and there wasn't much for them to save her. It pains her to see her sister so aart from her.

Sister...

Yang pondered on the word. She kept calling Ruby her sister, but is she even her sister?

She recalled Jaune speaking about false memories to keep people from waking up.

_'If we are awake, why are we still here?'_ Waking up was the term Jaune started with.  _'Maybe waking up is just a phase. We're just on the verge of being awake. A point where we are still in a dream.'_

What bothers Yang the most was the memories. The life she was living up to this point with Ruby had been a lie and since she wasn't like the monters underneath the skin of the people walking around. Why did she feel so protective her? She might be her sister here, but is in the other world?

The only way to find out was to gather enough memories to wake Ruby. Maybe then, Yang would be able to see memories like how Jaune did for Weiss. A girl who fit the profile hovered past the corner of Yang's eye. She immediately turned and saw her walking out of the lunch room.

"Jaune! She just left the room."

"Let's grab our food and chase after her." They both grabbed what they could and made a brisk walk from their table to the exit.

"Jaune?" Jaune stopped and turned to see Pyrrha who just walked into the cafeteria.

"Pyrrha!"

"Where are you going? Aren't you going to eat?" Yang stayed silent during the encounter, but inched out of the doorway.

"Oh, I am. Just relocating. I gotta go. See you next class." Jaune rushed out along with Yang, leaving Pyrrha wondering.

* * *

The girl didn't make it far from the door, which made catching up pretty easy.

"Hey!" Jaune called out to her. She turned her head and wondered who was being called. She turned around when Jaune made another call. Yang and Jaune approached the confused girl. Jaune immediately found it odd that she didn't look like she recognized him and Yang. The incident in the lunch room shouldn't have been that long ago.

"Hi?"

"Have you eaten?" Yang asked immediately to break the ice before things got awkward.

"Yes I have."

_'Crap. Your up Vomit-boy.'_ Yang nudged Jaune in the rib.

_'That didn't even look like you tried!'_ Yang gestured her head to the girl's direction.  _'Fine.'_

"Um.."

"We were just wondering if you got a minute."

"Sure."

"You remember us right?" Yang spoke up once more.

"Of course I do." The girl smiled. "I'm very grateful for that."

"You're welcome, but uh, could we talk in privately?" Jaune tried his best not to sound to forceful, but the change in the look of her face showed signs of some sort of fear.

"Hmm. What is this about?" The girl sounded a bit worried. Jaune had to take action before things get worse. Yang decided to take things into her own hands to make up for her first pathetic attempt.

"We were wondering if you've had any weird dreams lately. Like a recurring dream or something." Yang lowered her voice as she walked closer to her.

"WHat do you mean?"

"Like, a dream that makes you feel like you're not in a dream."

"..." Jaune and Yang couldn't guess what her silence meant. The girl looked around as if she was hiding from something. "Let's go somewhere."

Jaune and Yang looked at each other. They've hit a jackpot. Jaune led the girl near the stairs to the roof. There, Yang and Jaune watched as the girl paced around, before finally talking.

"In truth, I've had something like what you mentioned for a while now. You both have too right?" Yang and Jaune nodded. The girl sighed in relief. "That's good. I thought I was the only one."

"Well that was easy." Yang said as he crossed her arms.

_'A little too easy.'_  For Jaune, it was odd, but he took this as a step forward.

"Do you remember who I am." The girl ask with a smile. Jaune and Yang look at each other before, putting themselves in a deep thought. Jaune had seen this girl in his dreams. One where she was being bullied by person that looked like Cardin.

Yang remembered seeing her somewhere in an open area with a lot of people. Vaguely she remembered that there were a lot of people around that look like she arrived from somewhere.

Jaune suddenly remembered meeting this girl at some point in his life with Yang and a few other people. He tried to remember her name from the emuffled sound from the records of his brain, until something cleared.

"You're...Ve-Ve...Velvet!" She smiled. Yang blurted out how familiar that name was. "Velvet.. Velvet... I cant remember you're last name."

"Don't worry about it. What were you guys planning on doing about all of this?"

"Right now we're trying to find something from our memories about Blake. We managed to figure out some stuff about things too, but they are mostly some theories."

"Is there anything I can do?" Jaune looks to Yang for confirmation. Yang looked back with saying she had't gotten a clue.

"Well so far, nothing yet, but its good to have another eye out in this place. There are other people that we're trying to get, but we're focusing on Blake right now. We're planning on meeting her after school, hopefully we find her. "

"Hopefully not with Adam." Yang added.

"Why is that?"

"Adam seems to keep us from getting close to Blake and I'm getting bad vibes from him. He isn't the only one guarding. The other people we're trying to get has some form of guard dog that prevents us from getting to close to an assault. We don't know all of those guards, so we're following Blake because at least we know." Jaune explained. "Meet Yang up front after school. I'll shadow Blake and tell you where to go."

"Alright. I'll let you know if anything else happens around. For now I have to go collect some papers for next class."

Jaune and Yang smiled and walked back to the lunch room. They waved at Velvet, who waved back with a smile. Both felt relieved to to know that there was another one like them. Bit by bit they were getting closer to their goal and finally find out how to get out.

Jaune felt the need to look back at Velvet, but his attention focused on Yang when she took a large chunk off of an apple she carried from the lunchroom. The bite was big enough to make Jaune questioned how she did that.

The girl called Velvet didn't move.

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* * *

The end of school came and Yang rushed out of her class with her stuff packed, ready to go. She sprinted to the front of the school to wait for the Velvet girl. She stood not to far outside from the door, enough to scan anyone coming out. Yang thought back on the girl's name. She remembered someone in her dreams of a girl with bunny ears like Jaune was telling her. Peculiar s it may, her name in her dreams was the same as that in this world.

She watched as students walk out of the school. Jaune mentioned that all of them were the monsters and that only a certain amount of people in the school possessed aura.

_'Possessing aura means that you are alive.'_ She closed her eyes and remember what Jaune taught her about echoes. It was a simple use of aura to detect others with aura. It filters out the living from the not. Jaune mentions there s a way to detect monsters. Yang kicked her self internal for not listening well on one of Jaune's lectures.

Thinking about the boy, she felt odd about his personality. Her dreams didn't match up to it showed who Jaune was. She knew Jaune wasn't making all this up. So it can only mean that Jaune grown from what he used to be. Now the question that started to pick on her curiosity how old are they in the other world. They were teenagers her, but what about on the other side?

Yang slouched her shoulders, using echo just showed her everything around her was monsters. She leaned back slightly before realizing nothing was behind her to lean on.

She nearly fell back before bumping into someone. Yang turned around and apologized. Yang was a bit surprised to see the girl Velvet behind her.

"Are you okay?"

"...Yeah..." Before Yang can think of anything, her cellphone rang. She grabbed hit out of her pocket and saw Jaune's name pop up. She didn't bother of thinking anything else and answered the call. "Jaune?"

"Yang I'm following Blake right now. She went out on the west door. Hurry!"

"Alright!" Yang dropped the call and told Velvet to follow her.

* * *

Jaune saw himself fortunate to see Blake without Adam being around. He had followed Blake while blending with the crowd but its not going to last for very long. Not long before it would look like he was stalking her, which didn't play fair for Jaune.

He would have no choice but to jump the gun and talk to Blake, before Yang and the girl Velvet arrives. Jaune saw the nearby construction site at the end of the corner. He rushed and called for Blake.

The girl turned around, recognizing the voice.

"Jaune?"

"Hi Blake."

"W-What is it?" Jaune noticed thing became a bit to awkward with Blake.

"I was trying to catch up to you. Listen I want to talk to you."

"About what?" Blake's vocie took a defensive tone. Jaune tried to get the gears in his head turning. He can't turn this like he did with Yang so he had to move accordingly.

"I wanted to talk to you about what happened between you and I." Jaune suddenly paused. He didn't realize how sensitive that topic was and how little he knew about it.

Hearing that, Blake didn't even respond. Jaune saw her face angered before turning to leave.

_'Wrong move Jaune.'_

"Wait Blake!" Jaune made a reach for her hand. As soon as he grasped her hand, she swung around, making him let go of her.

"Why are you bringing that up?" Blake was angry. Jaune can hear it from her voice.

"I wanted to... make peace with you." This wasn't going well for Jaune. He didn't want to start off with this topic, but he hopes to find a trigger that will make him recall something from the other world about Blake.

"Peace? Do you really think that will matter now?" Right then, Yang arrived with the other girl. Blake's expression only got worse. "Are you kidding me?"

"What?" Jaune was at a loss to what Blake meant. Blake pointed to Yang and the other girl. "Did you just want to tell me you have a girlfriend? Two girlfriends? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"No Blake! That's not it at all!"

"Is this you're way of getting back at me?"

"What?" Yang stayed silent. She wanted to help but she didn't want to get in between this as much as as she already has.

"Don't play dumb with me!"

"Blake...I..."

"I told you my secret Jaune! I trusted you to accept me for it! But the look on you're face..."

"What are you talking about?"

"Stop! Just leave me alone!" Blake bolted to a sprint in the construction site.

"Blake wait!" Jaune rushed as best as he can while the other two followed. For a moment, he though he had lost her before nearly passing a turn seeing Blake trapped at a dead end. "Blake?" Jaune reached for her shoulder before she turn around and smacked his hand out of the way. Her cheeks were puffed and her eye shadow ruined from trying to dry the tears from her eyes.

Jaune couldn't help it, but he can't seem to help others without making them cry. It never occurred to him the thing between him and Blake. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't figure out what happened to between them.

"Blake." Jaune could here whimpering from the girl as she tried to fight back the tears. "I came to talk to you, to tell you..." She looked up to stare into his eyes. "To stop denying the real world!" This caught Blake by surprise. Same went for Yang.

"What?"

"I know you know! Your trying to deny something. Listen I...I don't remember." Jaune pushed the words out of his chest no matter how hard it was to say. "I don't remember why we broke up." Blake's face went from shocked to an enraged state. Yang reached to Jaune wondering if this was the right path.

"How dare you...!"

"Blake! Stop blindingly accepting this world!" Blake grabbed her head and shook around, loosening her ribbon from her hair.

"Shut up!"

"Blake!"

"I'm accepted in this world!" Jaune's eyes widened. From the split second, he tried to interpret what she said. "I told you what I was and you rejected me!" Blake backed off to the wall.

Jaune was in disarray, neither his memories or his dreams told him anything about rejecting Blake. Not by who, but by what she was.

"Blake...I've never rejected you." She whipped her head to reveal glowing yellow eyes, piercing at Jaune's soul. Her eyes brought upon a heavy nostalgia, not to Jaune, but from Yang.

Yang tried her hardest to recognized who those glowing yellow eyes belong to, but what came to mind was Cinder. She felt anger building up inside, not until she sorted out, the Blake couldn't be the same person as the one that has Ruby in her grasp.

"You are all the same! This world accepts me!"

"Blake..."

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Blake repeated as she screamed, curling into a ball by the wall.

Jaune tried to reach for her before his hand suddenly was grabbed by another. He followed the arm connecting to man taller than him.

"Adam." Yang whispered in fear.

"Step aside! This doesn't concern you!" Jaune was preoccupied and have forgotten that Adam wasn't a person. He was only able to react by seeing Adam's freehand reel back and mutate into a puff of black matter. He didn't put up any aura when it went straight to his face.

Jaune's view of the world blurred and shook as he was sent flying back, slamming into a nearby building.

The blood that came from Jaune mouth splattered across Yang's face, who didn't even flinch as it hit her. She was in shocked, eyes widened.

An image of Jaune bleeding on her arms flashed across her mind.

Something hot inside her grew and started to overflow. Hand balled to a fist, her nails instantly digging into her palm, blood dripping out. A high pitched whistling echoed in the air as Yang''s hat suddenly eviscerated into ashes.

Her hair started curling and glowing.

Steam coming out of her.

And with a deep breath she let out a roar that shook the world.

"GAHHHHHHHHHH!"

Eyes red, foot planted on the ground, destroying it as she launched herself towards Adam. He didn't even realized that her burning fist made contact to his face, causing a shockwave that pushed Blake into a wall knocking her unconscious. Adam was thrown through several walls of the site.

Yang readied herself once more, destroying the ground she was on as she launched to his direction again. The glorious shine of her hair lit the now darkening night skies.

The sound of loud crashes and shockwaves, coupled with Yang screams echoed through the site.

Jaune regained consciousness and weakly rose up from the ground. He rubbed his face, which started to heal the damage Adam did. He was lucky enough to put up enough aura to survive the blow and crashing to the wall. He stepped out rubble and witnessed the flashing lights hidden by the smoke ad debris.

"Yang?" He looked around and realized the Blake was in the vicinity. He waved his hand to clear the smoke around him as best as he can.

Once it cleared a bit, he saw Blake on the floor, not to far from him.

Along with a person by her standing completely still.

He had recognized it was the girl Velvet.

"Velvet! What are you doing!" His voice didn't reach her as more of the noise from Yang rampage muted everything else. "Yang!"

The smoke in front of him suddenly clear revealing Adam, with what appears to be horns growing from his head, who landed from a high jump. Before Jaune could react, Adam immediately dodged Yang, who dashed from the back colliding with Jaune, pinning him to the floor.

Jaune regain composer and witnessed an enraged red-eyed Yang. Fangs growing from her teeth. Her clothes torn and a bit on fire. He saw the wounds on her arm all over her arms. It looked more like burn marks then flesh wounds. She was about to attack him only to realize that wasn't Adam.

"Yang! You have to calm down! I'm okay!" His word didn't reach her. She turned her head to her left then suddenly she disappeared along with a shockwave that pressed Jaune to the ground. Adam had kicked her through several concrete walls.

Adam stood before him, about to smash him with both of his monstrous black arms. Jaune flipped up with all his might to dodge the attack. The impact of his arms to the floor sent Jaune flying, landing on pile of rubble. He grunted in pain, and accepted that it could've been worse if he did't have aura to protect him.

He found a steel pipe and rushed towards Adam. He stopped midway as Yang suddenly dashed to their location and started pummeling Adam in the face. The two exchanged blows rapidly. Jaune moved out of the way, trying not to get caught up with the action.

Adam caught one of Yang's punches and flung her towards Jaune.

He braced himself to catch Yang, only to be lifted off of his feet and through another concrete wall. He yelled in pain as the fire in Yang's hair seared onto his arms. Yang stood up, not even realizing where she landed and dashed, disappearing from the dust smoke.

Jaune, a bit weakened, tried to get up from the rubble. The pain on his arms and his back prevented him from pulling himself off the pile. He hears a loud boom before everything turned silent. Adam was walking towards him.

He had taken down Yang and he stood right over him, eyes all red and large horns. His arms over-sized by some grotesque black matter, raising up to slam on to him.

Jaune panted, unable to do anything as he him prepare to end his life.

A slow pulsing light caught his attention. Behind the dust smoke to his left he saw a pulsing yellow light traveling slowly to the right, Jaune could feel a large pulsating energy building up. He starts hearing a mysterious revving noise.

Sounds like something was charging.

Adam turned around to see where the light was coming from.

The dust smoke cleared, revealing Yang's very, very long, glowing hair that dragged across the floor, sparks coming out from them as it pulsated to her head.

Yang looked exhausted.

The pulsating noise grew faster and faster. Her chest grew as she took a deep breath before unleashing a loud roar and a massive stream of fire from her mouth towards Adam.

He blocked the stream with his arms, but was pushed away. Jaune raised his arms, trying to protect himself from the heat of the flames.

The stream finished and Yang fell to her knees.

Jaune rose up from the pile as he tried to ignore the pain. He rushed to Yang, but the closer he get, the more the air around her stung from the heat. Jaune observed as her arms, legs, and stomach were all badly burns, with still some fire still lit up on them.

She tried to rise from her knees, only failing by landing on all fours.

"Yang! Stop!" Jaune tried his best to get closer. He looks back to see Adam emerging from the smoke, burned from Yang's fires. He was about to break into a sprint towards them, but Yang looked up and made one final breath as she launched another stream of fire toward Adam.

Jaune stepped back and watched as Adam pulled his hands together catching the fire with them. Suddenly the stream grew thinner and the energy suddenly circulated on his arms.

Yang was too weak and exhausted to react to anything. She was dazed and in so much pain. She had reached the wall.

Adam took a deep breath.

Jaune, in disbelief, witnessed Adam absorbing, Yang's fire into himself, before firing it back.

Jaune tried to step in, but was caught by the shockwave and thrown back. The beam of light blasted Yang letting her body tumble lifelessly like a doll across the floor.

Jaune looked up to witness it.

He called on as much aura as he currently to get himself up.

Adam was preparing to fire another beam.

Jaune ran and dove towards Yang, covering her with his body as Adam shot the beam.

"YAAAAANG!"

A loud groaning of the metal around started to reverberate until the a large pile of metals bars suddenly crashed before Jaune and Yang, shielding them from the beam.

Adam cut off the beam as he jumped away when another batch of metal bars came crashing down on him. Each bars embedding on the ground from where he landed.

Jaune rose up seeing the metal in front him him.

He looked up to see Adam, in a more normal human looking self, carrying Blake. He stared down at him before disappearing into the night.

He quickly knelt down beside Yang and carefully turned her over. There was so much wounds around her body. The sound of Yang breathing was a good thing. Sirens blared from the back.

Jaune had wondered why they haven't arrive yet from all this chaos.

"Velvet! Velvet! Where are you!" No response. Velvet was nowhere to be scene. Yang needed medical attention, but he couldn't trust this world of its inhabitants. He didn't want to leave Yang at the hospital. He certainly wasn't going to be here when the police arrive.

Jaune had no choice but to run. He carefully carried Yang on his back and rushed out of the site before anyone got there.

He didn't want to stay to wonder about the metal bars that fell. Whatever the cause was, it wasn't an accident.

Up above the site, a person stood looking below.

-pic-

deviantart atrox-forensis

search -Image WTTRW 2-

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* * *

Jaune managed to get to Yang's house. He tackled the door open and put Yang straight to bed.

It wasn't looking good. Yang was dying. The amount of aura she had left was trying to heal her wounds, but it wasn't enough. if her aura completely depletes, she will loose her life. Seeing Yang in this state, was crushing Jaune's soul.

Bandages wasn't going to cut it. Jaune needed a way to save her.

_Aura..._

Jaune thought back on one moment of his dream where he healed a deep cut on his cheek and someone telling him that he possessed a lot of aura.

"If I can heal with my aura, then I can certainly heal others with it." He knelt down beside Yang's bed and grabbed her arms. "Hang on Yang."

He mustered as much aura as he had left and pushed to generate more. Channeling his lifeforce into her.

This went on for several minutes before Jaune succumb to extreme exhaustion, still keeping his hands on Yang's.

...

...

...

...

_a loud roar..._

_..._

_black fur..._

_..._

_manifestation of our soul..._

_..._

_led by Jaune Arc..._

_..._

_i'm a failure..._

_..._

_snow angel probably wasn't the best start..._

_..._

_ever need any help you can just ask..._

_..._

_That's what I like about you..._

_..._

_an Arc never goes back on his words..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_I guess I can see why I'm called Ice Queen..._

_..._

_Thank you for the books, Jaune..._

_..._

_You bake the best cookies!_

_..._

_Don't worry boss, I won't break his legs..._

_..._

_I'll always be your partner Jaune..._

_..._

_Jaune wake up! Please! It's me Yang!_

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

Jaune woke up when he felt a hand over his head, brushing his air.

It felt nice.

He immediately shot up and looked at Yang.

She smiled. It was morning.

"What's wrong?"

"Yang..." He held out his hands as he looked at her arms. Her hair straight.

"Sorry, I changed clothes. The other ones were burned." Yang was suddenly tackled down by him.

"You're okay!"

"Of course I am. Thanks to you," Jaune broke off and looked at her. "I guess you gave me you're aura to heal me. I've never felt so much better."

"That's good."

"What up with you? You suddenly shot up."

"Just had a vague dream."

"Yesterday was a complete failure wasn't it?"

"Yeah. It was my fault."

"No Jaune. We weren't prepared. Don't blame yourself. You didn't know what was going to happen."

"How are you holding up? You went on a rampage yesterday."

"I remember, I couldn't control myself all the way, but I focused on that guy."

"What made you like that anyway?" Yang looked at him and turned away.

"What kinda question is that Vomit-boy?" Jaune leaned in to look at her. Yang slapped her hand onto his face. "Don't look at me."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"He punched you and that kinda blew my fuse..." She said blushing, one which Jaune couldn't see. She let her hand down and face Jaune.

"I had a moment in my head with you in my arms bleeding. I remember yelling for you to wake up. That it was me there with you." Jaune was surprised. He remembered hearing that from his dream.

"Jaune..."

"Yeah?"

"How old do you think we are in the other world. We look like teenagers here, but I doubt its the same out there. To me, you were much different from my dreams. More mature...cooler." Jaune wasn't able to get the last part.

"Huh?"

"Nothing! What do you think?"

"Maybe... we're much older. I can say for sure, but I can't say how old, but enough to change us."

"I see. Wait what happened to Velvet? Where is she?"

"I don't know. I couldn't finder her. I hope she's okay."

"What happened afterwards? I lost consciousness when I got hit by a beam."

"Metal bars landed before us, to block the beam. Adam left with Blake."

"Metal bars?"

"I don't know. They suddenly dropped right in front of the beam, and I think it was dropping on Adam too."

"This isn't the first time we've seen metal acting up that way isn't it?"

"Yeah. I've felt it before, but I don't know where. Whatever it is, it must be someone watching us."

"Friend or foe?"

"Can't say for sure. Who ever it was, help at some point, but the one by the stairs still confuses me."

Afterwards, Yang insisted that she go to school.

Jaune declined.

Yang insisted that she was alright, even so far as accidentally showing her stomach to him that she was fully healed. She also mentioned how she was able to straighten her hair on command. Though she still needed to where a hat because of that strand of hair sticking up her head.

A feat which confuses Jaune how she managed to uncover that skill. They witness the construction site was as is when it was before they entered and destroyed it yesterday. It was the same as the warehouse Jaune fought the big bear. Upon entering school, they saw Blake. Adam was nowhere to be found. Yang followed Jaune as he rushed to her.

Things became more peculiar when Blake wondered what Jaune was talking about. All she remembered was going home. Jaune didn't dwell into the matter and backed off. It might have been better if Blake had forgotten yesterday.

They found Velvet alive and well. She explained that she managed to get away right before the metal started falling.

Jaune was a bit skeptical when he remembered seeing Velvet standing still over Blake.

School today was bleak. Nothing happened.

Jaune and Yang needed a new plan.

Blake may have to wait.

They needed another way of convincing others.

Jaune needed some time off so he went to his own home. Yang insisted that he call if he needed anything.

He sat on his bed, contemplated what happened yesterday.

He felt so much fear that time. He couldn't do anything. Got beaten up and let yang out of control enough that it nearly killed her.

He closed his eyes and logged this error and learned to be more careful.

He was mentally tired and he need rest. More rest than anything he had.

Taking deep breaths, slowly relaxing and letting the sleep take over.

...

...

...

...

...

"Guhh...Ack...ugh!" Jaune opened his eyes, it was night outside and something was cutting off his airway. He shot his hand to his throat to find a hand grasping it. He felt a weight sitting right on top of him. His eyes finally adjusted to the darkness and along with the shine of the moon outside.

A naked woman sat on him, choking him with her left arm. She had a wide grin and fangs. Crimson long hair that draped down on him. Bright green eyes.

It started laughing maniacally as it tightened the grip in his throat. Jaune struggled but the woman was stronger.

He thrashed around, trying to get free from her, but all for naught.

She raised her free hand. Black matter coming from her palm, shaped like a long pole, and drove it to Jaune's heart.

Jaune screamed from the pain,

The excruciating agony as it pierce his chest.

He found his voiced freed as he screamed, realizing the woman was gone. His chest still intact and no blood.

But he couldn't shake the feeling of pain on his throat.

He rose up and got a drink of water. Whatever that was, felt so real to Jaune.

And the woman, she looked so familiar.

Jaune remembered someone in his dream looking just like that.

Red hair.

Green eyes.

He gulped down his drink and left it at the sink.

He started outside, the brightly lit moon. there were still some old cracks there from when he woke up and Yang.

There were a few noticeable small one. Possibly from the time he tried to wake up Blake.

*ring*

"Huh?" Jaune turned to see what he heard.

*RING*

He looked back and saw a wheel dial phone sitting right by the counter of his kitchen.

*RING*

He knew for a fact, he never had a telephone in his home.

*RING*

Jaune was curious as to why there was a phone and why it was ringing.

*RING*

He walked over to the phone and stared at it. It was only a matter of time before he picked it up.

"Hello?"

It took a second before someone on the other line responded. A woman's voice.

"Mr. Arc."

_'This voice...i know this voice!'_

"I don't have much time. As you are undoubtedly aware, the world you are ins;t like the ones in you're dreams."

"Wait who is this?"

"Enough Mr. Arc. I don't have a lot of time. Something happen to you're body and Ms. Xiao Long. She flat lined for a few seconds before getting back to life. We do not know what happened, but she was saved."

"Are you from the other side? If so, how are you able to communicate with me?"

"We found a way, but what set it apart how we found you're signal. When Ms. Xiao Long's pulse came back, your aura pattern became erratic, before silencing. We managed to find the exact same aura pattern on Ms. Xiao Long. Which means that you transferred you're aura to hers. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Good, Ms. Xiao Long should feel delighted that you have saved her. But it brings me to some grave news." Jaune was more curious to what this woman was saying than asking her his own questions. "We were not able to communicate with anyone because their aura is protecting them from external source. The reason why we were able to reach you is that you're aura stopped protecting you."

"What?"

"You gave it to her remember? No we have a clear line of communication that can stay up for a certain amount of time, before reconnecting."

"I see."

"Jaune..."

"Yes?"

"The moon has noticed you." Jaune felt that statement to be cryptic, but utterly frightening. "If you've been having dreams before, that's because you were trying to communicate to us, by passing through you're real memories. The chaos in you're dreams is because of the moon. Now that you do not have the same aura as before, we are able t communicate with you at random intervals, but from what they are telling me, your _nightmares_  will happen more frequently and they will become worse and worse, as time goes on." Jaune tried to keep himself from falling over from fear. Now he knows that the other side exist, and that healing yang came at a cost.

A cost that he will have to suffer from.

One he knew deep down, he would rather face gladly than to see his friends suffer.

"The connection is cutting off. I will have to contact you when the time is right. We'll talk again. Farewell and be strong Mr. Arc."

"Wait! I have the strangest feeling I know you. I know this voice, but I cant remember."

"Shame on you for forgetting you're favorite instructor. This is Professor Goodwitch. Glynda Goodwitch."

The line of the phone went dead.

Jaune dropped the phone back to its dock. He walked towards his bed and fell.

"The other side..."

He picked up his phone and scrolled through Yang's number. He wanted to tell her that he has reached contact with the other side.

He was about to call, but decided to leave things be. He had to keep it from Yang. She would never live down knowing that saving her caused Jaune to be defenseless to the nightmares. He didn't want to worry her.

He dropped the phone beside him and stared at the ceiling.

He stayed up until the sun rose.

_to be continued..._

**Author's Note:**

> pardon my spelling and grammar. still working on the kinks and editing soon.
> 
> This au pays homage to one of my favorite movie: The Matrix


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